1322
Nutritional Hexes
(thelemmy.club)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
1322 points (99.3% liked)
Science Memes
19683 readers
2721 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
AFAIK, still no conclusive studies that show microplastics having an overly adverse affect on the human body. I've seen one linking it to lower sperm counts, but that's not particularly bad to me. We don't need more people.
The big scare with microplastics is that they are everywhere and that certainly isn't good; and I think we're all just waiting for the shoe to drop and some study to come out that shows something majorly negative with them. But for now, there's nothing obvious sticking out that shows an immediate concern. Which makes sense. We use plastic for so much because it tends not to react to stuff.
The problem is that we'll never know because there's no control group. Everybody has them, even fetuses still in the womb. You would have to build bunkers with perfect air filtering, and then go through, like, four generations of humans to breed microplastics-free specimen, which you could then use a the control group for the rest... Only them never leaving the bunker would already invalidate the tests... So, yeah...
If micro plastics were a problem then we should expect to see rapid increases in cancers in younger adults.
Handed a note
Huh. No shit.
Though even that is complicated by 50 or so years of nuclear weapons testing, which likely also increased cancer rates. Not to mention all that lead everywhere. Produce gradually losing nutrients because farming mostly just focuses on the big three with fertilizer and the others are being mined out of the ground and sent to landfills, septic tanks, waste processing facilities, cemetaries, and crematoriums also doesn't help (though I'm not sure waste processing and crematoriums remove those nutrients from the cycle like the others, since the one could produce fertilizer and the other might be sending it out into the atmosphere where it could eventually end up back in the soil).
There's so much chaos that it's hard to isolate causes, which then makes all the causes kinda "hide in plain sight" because they can perpetually blame the others and shit only gets worse over time.
Let's not forget the industrial pesticides, which are also everywhere.
Yeah, microplastics, too. And "pollution" being still broader than the list either of us have given so far. A car goes by smelling like gas? They are running their motor too rich and you're literally inhaling unburnt gasoline. A car whose exhaust stinks but not like gas? Running too lean and now you're inhaling various nitrogen compounds that aren't great for inhaling. Ratio is correct? Still inhaling more CO and CO2 than normal, but everyone is doing it so there might not even be a control population to compare the effects against.
Oh also all the food additives that get tested for acute safety but not so much chronic (as in "will it kill you or make you obviously sick if you eat it once or a few times?" gets studied but "will eating it twice a week for 30 years have any long term effects?" is ignored).
Because they are so ubiquitous that it is impossible to find a control group. Quite literally every single person on the planet has micro plastics in them.
We haven't noticed much in the way of short term effects, but there's no way to know what long term effects there will be except to wait.
In the meantime, since the effects are... unlikely to be beneficial, the best thing to do is reduce exposure as much as possible.