Submitted 6 hours ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/af6beec9-a7c1-4dc3-b778-100ae9920bc4.jpeg
I remember when I found out that shit was plastic. I always assumed they were organic material of some kind, like the body scrubs with the crushed up walnut shell in it (which probably has fucking microplastic in it, too). So disgusting.
This is why we need to change how shit works. It shouldn’t go: company does some shit > fall out > government steps in. It should go: company has an idea > must get permission first from environmental agencies
Plastic is an organic material, trees are mostly plastic (lignin, a phenolic polymer, cellulose a polysaccharide polymer, hemicellulose an heteropolysaccharide and suberin a polyester-like polymer).
The problem we’re having is a naturalistic fallacy crossed with the unpleasant fact that almost everything we touch sheds dust and powder absolutely everywhere. This along with spores and yeast and other dusts constantly enter our bodies.
Plastic is only of note because we made it.
Any problems beyond that is speculative and will requires ginormous gobs of grant money to actually answer with anything than precautionary principle-based FUD.
Hydrocarbon based plastic absolutely isnt natural, there are many different kinds of plastic in existence but overwhelmingly stuff from the last 50 years has been the inorganic hydrocarbon type which doesn’t break down and is likely a endocrinologal distruptor & a carcinogen.
Nah corporations really don’t give a shit at all, like all chewing gum is literally just plastic too and sheds tons of microplastics into your mouth as you chew it.
vice.com/…/rethink-chewing-gum-habit-essentially-…
Plastic is an organic material though, so your assumption was correct.
The difference is in the definition or organic. When the average person thinks organic, they mean something that is or used to be alive. When a scientist think organic, they’re talking about carbon compounds.
Interesting. Always thought chewing gum was more like when you made “plastic” out of the caesin in milk.
i assumed it was just glass or similar, maybe the same material as those moisture-absorbing silica packets
Don’t like thinking about how much of that probably made it to my brain, organs, and muscles :)
www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03453-1
This study released last year based on samples from cadavers suggests there’s enough in your brain to make a plastic spoon
“this is not what we meant by brain plasticity”
people passing close to a crematorium:
someone is burning plastic
Maybe they can recycle me into a plastic spoon then.
Damn… yeah those samples suggest ~6–8mg of plastic per gram of sample tissue in the brains from 2024 😟 That would be like 10 grams in an entire adult brain if the distribution is even.
“Thankfully” it looks like the brain has the highest concentration of all studied organs 🙃
This stuff still exists in my country, and the expensive toothpaste my mother bought is one of them 🙂
Reasons we need more oversight and regulations for these corporate snake oil salesmen. This shit should be a crime against humanity and every damn company that put that shit into their products should be abolished.
we need more oversight and regulations
I think that ship has sailed
And every single person who was part of the decision should be punished.
Call me crass, but we should tie them to a tree and pour molten plastic down their throat.
Oh I’d somehow forgotten this era
That shit was in everything non solid for like 2 years
I still use a few profucts with a similar concept, though the beads are of cellulose or similar fiber as opposed to plastic. I’m not aware if they’re problematic or not, so I thought I’d comment in the hope that perhaps someone who feels strongly about these things might educate me if they are indeed bad for you or the environment or something.
That’s not micro though?
But they become micro as part of abrasion with your teeth.
No, but these beads pretty much go straight into the local waterways where they can very quickly break down into micro plastics. All so a human didn’t have to use a tool like a brush or a loofa to scrub themselves. Convenience at any cost.
my microwave has been lying to me!?
Please, do name and shame.
Inalways thought that those were like the crunchy exterior of chewing gum, but as little glitter pellet things
Chewing gum is plastic
The shell as well? Thought it was some kind of carbohydrate
ekky@sopuli.xyz 2 hours ago
Plastic gotta be this age’s lead/quicksilver.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 hours ago
It is. Along with PFAS.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 50 minutes ago
The PFAS/PFOA controversy, is mostly about banning these commodity products so that the proprietary, non-commodity alternatives by western companies can become the only high temperature dry lubricant on sale.
Maybe in another 60 years we’ll have the same controversy about them !
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
Except plastic doesn’t really seem to do anything. It just “is there”. Unless you swallow enough of it to clog something, it doesn’t seem to do anything.
We’ve seens lots of “it might interefere with hormones”, but that part is always to be confirmed in the next research grant request and then we never hear about it again.