Sep 8, 2023·edited Sep 8, 2023Liked by Paul Hormick
As a scientist and veterinarian, I find subjects like this one so difficult. On the one hand, I'm aware that correlation does not mean causation, these phenomena are all highly multifactorial, and that lots of the info on the web about "toxins" and "chemicals" are GOOP-style influencers peddling garbage for clicks and to sell products. On the other hand, when you look at decreasing fertility rates, decreasing testosterone and sperm counts, and other evidence of endocrine disruption across the population, it's hard not to wonder how much microplastics may contribute, among other things (there are numerous chemicals in our food and environment that can also have an impact). I also personally find it really hard, almost paralyzing, to know how to use this information: I definitely try to drink tap or filtered water and avoid the low hanging fruit, but *EVERYTHING* in our environment is plastic (hell, even some of the water filters!) It's so ubiquitous that meaningfully reducing it seems all but impossible...
Eric, you're absolutely correct! Generalizing from a controlled lab experiment to the wider world doesn't always happen. The studies are nonetheless concerning. Besides the implications for human health, there are questions about ecology. Could plastic pollution disrupt neurological/reproductive/etc. functions of some creatures to the extent that their populations crash?
And yes, you might reduce your exposure to plastic by using natural fibers etc., but it's impossible to escape our polymers. They are EVERYWHERE. My conundrum: my water filter is made of plastic. What am I to do?
This subject has actually been on my mind for awhile now. What do all these micro plastics do to us, our world? I went so far as to purchase a special trash can just so that I could get all the plastics that I’m throwing away together so they can be recycled.
That brings me to this point, why aren’t we specifically recycling plastics? They shouldn’t be just thrown away and then ending up in the dump. We should have a special dumpster that they go in. I don’t know if most recyclables break down but we know most plastics don’t and we have no idea what they may be doing to us, the planet in the long run. It’s time we start addressing this problem.
That is an excellent question, Mark! I have not fully looked into this, but from my understanding, plastics are hard to recycle. The last that I read about the subject, under ten percent of plastics get recycled. I should be writing about the subject sometime in the near future.
As a scientist and veterinarian, I find subjects like this one so difficult. On the one hand, I'm aware that correlation does not mean causation, these phenomena are all highly multifactorial, and that lots of the info on the web about "toxins" and "chemicals" are GOOP-style influencers peddling garbage for clicks and to sell products. On the other hand, when you look at decreasing fertility rates, decreasing testosterone and sperm counts, and other evidence of endocrine disruption across the population, it's hard not to wonder how much microplastics may contribute, among other things (there are numerous chemicals in our food and environment that can also have an impact). I also personally find it really hard, almost paralyzing, to know how to use this information: I definitely try to drink tap or filtered water and avoid the low hanging fruit, but *EVERYTHING* in our environment is plastic (hell, even some of the water filters!) It's so ubiquitous that meaningfully reducing it seems all but impossible...
Eric, you're absolutely correct! Generalizing from a controlled lab experiment to the wider world doesn't always happen. The studies are nonetheless concerning. Besides the implications for human health, there are questions about ecology. Could plastic pollution disrupt neurological/reproductive/etc. functions of some creatures to the extent that their populations crash?
There are nonetheless indicators that we are poisoning ourselves. In researching for this article, I ran across this piece in The Guardian about rising cancer rates in young people: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/05/cancer-cases-in-under-50s-worldwide-up-nearly-80-in-three-decades-study-finds
And yes, you might reduce your exposure to plastic by using natural fibers etc., but it's impossible to escape our polymers. They are EVERYWHERE. My conundrum: my water filter is made of plastic. What am I to do?
This subject has actually been on my mind for awhile now. What do all these micro plastics do to us, our world? I went so far as to purchase a special trash can just so that I could get all the plastics that I’m throwing away together so they can be recycled.
That brings me to this point, why aren’t we specifically recycling plastics? They shouldn’t be just thrown away and then ending up in the dump. We should have a special dumpster that they go in. I don’t know if most recyclables break down but we know most plastics don’t and we have no idea what they may be doing to us, the planet in the long run. It’s time we start addressing this problem.
That is an excellent question, Mark! I have not fully looked into this, but from my understanding, plastics are hard to recycle. The last that I read about the subject, under ten percent of plastics get recycled. I should be writing about the subject sometime in the near future.
Plastic is ubiquitous. It’s now showing up in rainwater.
Yup!