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[–] 229 points 3 years ago (22 children)

This may be true but I hate the practice of referring to "plastic" as if it's a single substance. It's a bunch of different materials that don't really have that much in common with each other, especially from a health/toxicity standpoint.

For example, people treat it as common sense that "you shouldn't burn plastic" because the smoke is "toxic". For PVC this is totally true, it makes very nasty stuff like dioxin that will poison you. But on the other hand you can burn polyethylene (think milk jug) and it's no more toxic than burning a candle. Definitely way healthier to breath than wood campfire smoke, for example.

There's also such a silly pattern where people learn some chemical might have some effect on the body and suddenly everyone is up in arms about it. For example Bisphenol A in many applications was replaced by the very similar Bisphenol S just so things could be labeled "BPA Free". BPS probably has similar estrogenic effects to BPA.

I'd say the moral of the story is be wary of received wisdom about chemical toxicity from people who aren't chemists.

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  • [–] 43 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Have you heard of Dihydrogen monoxide? It literally kills hundreds of thousands of people every single year all over the world, including young children.

    You don't hear about it in the news though do you....

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  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    I'm confused about how it kills hundreds of thousands of people per year. How, by drowning?

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  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    It's an old (early-internet?) joke iirc. And yes, I think that's the answer

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  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Oh shit, I was thinking there was no way that hundreds of thousands of people did from drowning every year, but they actually do.

    WHO estimates that every year over 200k people die from drowning

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    What I think it is, is that every single person who ever consumes it, will eventually die. We are also literally dependant on it. If you stop ingesting it for too long, it can also cause you to die... That's how it went around here, at least.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Look at all of the related "risks" and add them up. I'm sure that drowning is a small number, but then add in all of the deaths from scalding, acid rain, poisons (that contain water), etc etc and it eventually gets to be a very big number. Probably in the millions

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  • [–] 29 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Not only BPAs but many chemicals like BPAs can cause birth defects because our bodies think they are estrogen.

    If this worries you, read the books It Starts With the Egg and Grain Brain.

    They both suggest that not only what you eat, but how it's prepared can affect the health of a child.

    For instance it's a big no-no, according to It Starts With the Egg, to heat most plastics in the microwave. The heat breaks the plastic down, it can get in your blood, your body will think it's estrogen, and they don't even know the full effects of this yet.

    So think about

    • burritos in plastic wrapping,
    • cling wrap on a bowl,
    • reheating leftovers in Tupperware,
    • disposable cutlery

    These chemicals are not just in food:

    • your car's interior
    • your cell phone case
    • even the clothes on your back, unless they're 100% pure, untreated, natural fabric, may have been made with these chemicals.
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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago*

    Yep, the long term affects are gonna be worse than we can imagine imo. These plastics are everywhere in the environment so it is literally unavoidable anywhere on this earth. They are in small concentrations, but they are increasing rapidly as more and more plastic is created/wasted every minute

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  • Thinking about reducing plastic fucks me up and it’s been on my mind a lot lately. Noticing every single time we bring new plastic into the household, and how hard it is to avoid. Chicken comes in plastic wrap, and even if we got it at a butcher counter, they still toss it in a plastic bag before wrapping it in brown paper. Bags of potting soil, our toothpaste tubes, peanut butter jars… it’s endless.

    At least the majority of my clothes are cotton or wool, but another source is carpet and there isn’t anything I can do about this apartment carpet.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Are microplastics similarly diverse in their effects on the human body?

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    I would guess that chemical effects would be diverse while "physical" effects would not be so diverse. Keep in mind that things like mesothelioma from asbestos are kinda sorta "physical" effects because it's from jagged roughness of the particles at the nanoscale rather than any specific chemistry.

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