I guess People will look at plastic in the future like we look at lead and asbestos now…
Comment on ngl it gets you pretty buzzed
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 2 days ago
I learnes there were asbestos tobacco pipes like a week ago. Humanity really didn’t see any of this coming.
Asbestos tobacco pipes are insanely rare and collectible these days, though. No one dares smoke them, more historical discussion pieces.
GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 2 days ago
VonReposti@feddit.dk 2 days ago
I think it will be much less pronounced. The negative effects of plastic in the body are relatively unknown, but IMO I think it will mostly pose as neurodevelopmental-like symptoms which won’t be able to compare with either lead or asbestos.
And the environmental consequences? The majority just doesn’t worry about that.
It definitely won’t be as bad as asbestos where inhaling just a single fiber can cause cancer. Lead, maybe, but lead is still widely used. Just not in normal fuel. We still use it in some aviation fuel though.
bizarroland@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I imagine it’s gonna give people hormone problems more than neurodevelopmental problems.
We’re probably going to see more giant babies and kids that are going into puberty younger and younger, and more instances of acromegaly in organs that are hormone responsive, like breasts and genitalia, and an increased predisposition to obesity since body fat is also a hormone soak.
There’s probably gonna be more issues on top of that, probably with stress on the liver, kidneys, and heart to process the increased and more variable hormones that human beings are exposed to.
And I imagine there’s going to be a mean regression in human lifespan due to all of these factors combined.
filcuk@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
There are also many types of plastic with very different chemicals.
I wonder if the next asbestos is carbon fibre, as it’s a popular infill for 3d printing, yet it is also made of nano needles that can destroy people’s lungs (at least large scale, it’s why it’s usually cut underwater).wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
If the needles were the issue then people would have to stop using fiberglass insulation and gypsum board drywall too.
The abrasiveness is a completely separate concern from the toxicity.
plutopos@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
It’s impossible because there is no control group for microplastic
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Some plastics are worse than others. ABS, BPA, BPS, PFAS, etc. are really bad. Polycarbonate releases toxic fumes during manufacturing but it’s considered non-toxic afterwards.
PLA is plant-based and decomposable. Polyethylene is inert/non-reactive and non-toxic. Cellophane is literally made from cellulose.
I don’t really know about polypropylene, polyurethane, polystyrene, or polyester.
Then there’s vinyl and nylon. Fairly certain those are inert and non-toxic, but I’m not 100% certain.
Then you’ve got latex and natural rubber which some people have allergies to but they aren’t intrinsically toxic as far as I’m aware. Synthetic rubbers vary in toxicity. I don’t know about neoprene for instance, but silicon is inert and non-toxic.
The problem is “plastic” is such a broad term, and to a lot of people, all of the above are just “plastic.” The fact is there are a variety of plastics and choosing your material intelligently can make all the difference.
Of course, microplastics are a whole nother issue even aside from toxicity…
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
And PTFE (teflon)
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Isn’t it asbestos dust that’s the issue? Like asbestos in the walls isn’t harming anyone, but if it gets demolished or destroyed then the dust is what causes issues?
At least that’s what I heard, but it could be wrong. And I guess scraping the pipe might create some dust anyway…
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 22 hours ago
The dust is actually fine needles that cause chronic inflammation in lungs, which triggers cancer. But this can happen with any fibres. Lately everyone is using carbon fiber and it’s as bad as asbestos.
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 1 day ago
They all seem sealed with a black varnish, and I have personally never held one or been able to look at the bowl or stem to see if they’re coated as well.
Naturally, both the stem and the bowl would lightly cake with carbon over time, 5-6 bowls before it’s on everything evenly.
Find one and be the hypothesis lol.
I’ll stick to briar
daggermoon@piefed.world 2 days ago
We used to drink radium too.
filcuk@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Ah the famous picture of a guy who’s lower jaw just fell off after he kept drinking this.
Similarly well known ‘radium girls’.
Horrific cases.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 22 hours ago
Millions of cars used asbestos brake pads from the 50s to the 1990s.
cornshark@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh shit, that would make smoking really bad for your lungs. You could even get lung cancer
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Fun Fact!
Pipe Tobacco is almost never inhaled by pipe smokers if they never smoked cigarettes beforehand.
This is one of the difficult parts of reading up on lung cancers between both groups. I couldn’t find any studies pointing directly at “pipe and only pipe smoking”, as the population pools for testing people dwindled rather quickly by the late 1980’s since pipe smoking was mostly gone outside of hobbyists.
I’d pair this up with vaping/snus in the harm-reduction camp if that’s true. I wouldn’t consider any type of smoke entering your body as entirely harm-free… or vapor, or nicotine for that matter.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
AFAIK they are more likely to get somethijg like mouth cancer instead.
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 1 day ago
That is the most likely risk, but that tends to be more associated with chewing tobacco and dip if you’re going by how saturated the individual is by the medium vs severity of the risk.
Vaping… is the really iffy one. Who made the juice? What’s in it? What’s the coil made of? Does it dissolve into the vapor? How much? Does too much heat effect it chemically? Yada yada.
cornshark@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What do you mean pipe smokers don’t inhale pipe tobacco? What do they do with the pipe then?
Phantaloons@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Taste it and let it roll on, same as cigars. Don’t take my word for it, any other source will say the same.
ijustliketrains@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Wait til you learn about what they used to put in cigarette filters
spitfire@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They’ve used pipes with lead in them for water ducts in Ancient Rome IIRC
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
We still do.
spitfire@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Who do you mean by „we”?
rumba@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Unfortunately a LOT of water distribution in the US is done in lead pips, That’s the whole damn flint water crisis. They don’t replace them because left undisturbed they’re not shedding at a dangerous rate, but once you fuck around with flow and pressure, it gets bad real quick.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
No, Germans. ->: verbraucherzentrale.de/…/bleileitungen-verboten-l…
And in “We” I meant the world population having old stock of lead in ground that are generally safe if handled properly.
GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 1 day ago
As far as i know this was not much of a problem the older the pipes got, because the pipes would accumulate a layer of calcium carbonate deposits from the untreated water over time.
Goun@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
We never care of what’s coming, we invent/discover something and use it for freaking everything instead of studying long term impact. It happens all the fucking time.
Agent641@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Asbestos really seemed like a miracle material. Its so easy to pull out of the ground and process into anything from tiles to fabric to brake disks. It’s abundant, cheap, and easy to mine. In a world where it seemed everything was always catching on fire, asbestos was magically fireproof. It was saving houses and children and housewives from going up in flames if they got too near a stove or fireplace. It was revolutionising industry, making workplaces safer and more efficient. I really don’t blame anyone for using it everywhere in those early years.
But greed took over after asbestos products flooded the market and the major health hazards became apparent. The corpos and the govts were too greedy and scared to admit it was dangerous, because that would mean choosing to dismantle a billions-dollar value strong industry and start recalling everything.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Exactly this. I knew this old retired fighter pilot guy, and he had asbestos gloves he held onto from his service days. He let me play with them at a BBQ once. You could straight up shove your hand into a pile of burning coals, hold it in your hand. Cool to the touch. It really seemed like magic. It really is a wonder-material. If not for the afromentioned cancer…
kwarg@mander.xyz 1 day ago
it almost sounds like you are talking abour AI
Amir@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
More like PFAS
DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Like with aspartame. There was no legit long term studies done until recently and it showed that aspartame can reduce intelligence
nickiwest@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Wow. Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea.
I found this study published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology just last year. The results are kind of horrifying. And it’s not only aspartame – they made similar connections with other low-calorie sweeteners.
arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
There seem to be problems with their study
Here’s the first glaring one:
What an absolutely ridiculous range of consumption for a study population.
Also the years they were collecting this data unfortunately had a whole pandemic occur. Covid is very well documented at causing long term mental decline. I’d like to see how many of their study group had confirmed covid infectious.
Overall I’m not saying it’s not worth further investigation, but there are far too many unknown variables that the study did not control for. Rate and frequency of consumption are huge.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
I had assumed people who drink aspartame products already have low intelligence. Are you sure it’s not selection bias?