Microplastics have been found almost everywhere: in blood, placentas, lungs – even the human brain. One study estimated our cerebral organs alone may contain 5g of the stuff, or roughly a teaspoon. If true, plastic isn’t just wrapped around our food or woven into our clothes: it is lodged deep inside us.
Microplastics are shed from packaging, clothes, paints, cosmetics, car tyres and other items. Some are tiny enough to slip through the linings of our lungs and guts into our blood and internal organs – even into our cells. What happens next is still largely unknown.
"Designing a definitive experiment is hard, because we’re constantly being exposed to these particles,” says Dr Jaime Ross, a neuroscientist at the University of Rhode Island in the US. “But we know microplastics are in almost every tissue that has been looked at, and recent studies suggest we’re accumulating far more plastic now than 20 years ago.”
as a cell biologist this confuses me.
usually we find the symptoms and discover the cause afterwards.
however, with micro plastics, we discovered the “cause” but somehow, haven’t really found any symptoms.
I’m assuming that having then is bad, yet it’s surprisingly inert.
I’m sure in 10 years we will find a massive horror that they cause when it’s too late.
How can we find a control group in the first place if we are all affected?
Good point, and another reason why it’s difficult,
however, you don’t always need a control, look ar Rachel Carson’s Silent spring.
which documented how having DDT everywhere in the world polluting all the waters leads to a decrease in Bird population without a DDT free planet to compare with besides the past.
You have an interesting writing style.
Gonna have to dissect some deceased inhabitants of North Sentinel Island as a control group.
I thought we’ve already been warned that all this plastic causes cancer. Like that’s why we’re not supposed to microwave things in plastic bowls & with plastic wrap, it supposedly causes cancer.
We think it might cause cancer, but don’t think we really seem any strong sognificant relationship.
Some plastics cause cancer, others seem to be completely ignored by biological processes. Plastics range from cellophane which is basically just cellulose fibers chained together to Teflon which is basically entirely man made. It all depends, but generally speaking, plastic in the microwave is bad.