this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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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.”

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 40 points 2 months ago

Conservative weirdos out there going nuts about vaccines and 5G, and meanwhile all that Vitamin P they've got in their brains is like "lol now hallucinate deficit spending on turning feral hogs gay."

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Between microplastics, COVID, and loosening of environmental laws things are looking rough

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

We'll just use our internal plastics to 3D print our way to Mars colonies, why can't you see that?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

None of these articles address how microplastics could be harmful. Everyone just assumes they're bad. For example, what cellular machinery is being damaged?

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How can we find a control group in the first place if we are all affected?

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

You have an interesting writing style.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Gonna have to dissect some deceased inhabitants of North Sentinel Island as a control group.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] InputZero@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

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.

We think it might cause cancer, but don't think we really seem any strong sognificant relationship.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because it's ultimately a Pascal's Wager due to it being unknown.

You can assume they're not bad and go all in on plastics. But if you're wrong, you'll pay for it worse than if you probably tried avoiding further intake as much as possible.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

At the very least, we know that they're chemically inert, but the current school of thought is that they might cause trouble as a result of that, by physically obstructing things, even if they don't otherwise cause problems.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Asbestos is chemically inert, as are PFAS, but both are understood to be pretty bad for you

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[–] quinkin@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Phthalates are not chemically inert and they are endocrine disrupters.

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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Future humans, or probably aliens, will use the plastic's make up to determine how old we are. Like carbon dating. Or isotopes.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 7 points 2 months ago

There used to be a joke that they'd find that layer of beige and blue that every computer peripheral was made of at one point, and be like "Ah, 1997".

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

That doesn't sound bad. It sounds helpful

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago
[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 2 months ago

I've eaten plastic all my life and I'm perffxct;yufines.

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

Welp can't do anything about it now!

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I just started watching Crimes Of The Future by David Fincher. It's about human evolution and how we as a species are adapting to the world we're making.

spoilerSPOILER: there's a secret subset of people who are in hiding because they eat plastic, and the governments of the world want to suppress them because they're the next stage of human evolution

[–] BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

That makes more sense, tbh. And is probably true.

[–] dickalan@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

YES. And because this was a unbiased anecdote about the movie, I definitely want to see it now

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