Would you like some plastic with that?

BeerWolf

People may be ingesting ‘credit card’s worth’ of plastic each week.

Link

Bon Appetit!

Deebles McBeebles

Ah for the days when all we had to worry about was eating spiders in our sleep. Simpler times.

ILoveYourVibes

I have no idea what that means nor do i care.

Deebles McBeebles

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

I have no idea what that means nor do i care.

That's the plastic eating away at your insides.

kneemos

We're all living longer though. Must be good for us.

ILoveYourVibes

We're gonna die anyway.

Chris_Heilong

Any research/findings commissioned by an activist group can be taken with a grain of salt.

McMurphy

My flexible and tasty friend.

GreeBo

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

Any research/findings commissioned by an activist group can be taken with a grain of salt plastic.

FYP

We are living longer because plastic doesnt break down like that crappy flesh stuff.

denismc

That would explain where all my money is going!

Fiftyfilthy

Who cares, almost all food we eat is detrimental to our health these days

Even the moralistic, high horse healthy eaters are consuming very little to what they believe they are

Badly Drunk Boy

BeerWolf wrote: »

People may be ingesting ‘credit card’s worth’ of plastic each week.

So is the 'credit card' now the SI unit of plastic?

Harry Palmr

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

So is the 'credit card' now the SI unit of plastic?

Just as "the size of Belgium" is the internationally recognised unit for rain forest depletion.

red petal

My "credit card's worth" is zero. Phew!

Cina

Fiftyfilthy wrote: »

Who cares, almost all food we eat is detrimental to our health these days

Even the moralistic, high horse healthy eaters are consuming very little to what they believe they are

Hate to break it to you, but plastic isn't food.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Fiftyfilthy wrote: »

Who cares, almost all food we eat is detrimental to our health these days

Even the moralistic, high horse healthy eaters are consuming very little to what they believe they are

That’s right. Even the salads are made of processed shrapnel . Greens, eggs the lot.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

It’s probably affecting your masculinity.

Conchir

Plastic ingested by sea life (from plankton-size up to large fish) has been shown to have detrimental effects. These can include disruptions to the endocrine system, affecting the organisms' hormones. This has caused changes to fertility and feeding behaviour in some cases (one paper I read was on oysters: ingestion of micro-polystyrene caused a reduction in sperm count, egg size and occurrence, and feeding behaviour was changed. Another concerned medaka, a type of fish found in rice fields; after exposure to micro-polyethylene, estrogen receptors in females were reduced, affecting fertility).

Research in the area is moving pretty fast, I won't be surprised if we see new findings on humans soon. We know humans are consuming plastic; the next finding of note would be plastic passing from the digestive system into the bloodstream, rather than simply passing through the body. After that, it may be a case like that of marine organisms, or it may have no adverse effects. My money would be on the former. Some common additives to plastic are already known to act as endocrine disruptors and carcinogens in humans, so if they have the potential to pass into the human body it may well have an effect.

I was surprised when it said water was the highest culprit

Zorya

Conchir wrote: »

Plastic ingested by sea life (from plankton-size up to large fish) has been shown to have detrimental effects. These can include disruptions to the endocrine system, affecting the organisms' hormones. This has caused changes to fertility and feeding behaviour in some cases (one paper I read was on oysters: ingestion of micro-polystyrene caused a reduction in sperm count, egg size and occurrence, and feeding behaviour was changed. Another concerned medaka, a type of fish found in rice fields; after exposure to micro-polyethylene, estrogen receptors in females were reduced, affecting fertility).

Research in the area is moving pretty fast, I won't be surprised if we see new findings on humans soon. We know humans are consuming plastic; the next finding of note would be plastic passing from the digestive system into the bloodstream, rather than simply passing through the body. After that, it may be a case like that of marine organisms, or it may have no adverse effects. My money would be on the former. Some common additives to plastic are already known to act as endocrine disruptors and carcinogens in humans, so if they have the potential to pass into the human body it may well have an effect.

Yesh, it's sad. Plastic was one of the very worst things ever invented. I cannot believe sometimes how much plastic there is in the world. How much utter crap made out of plastic we buy. How much everything is wrapped in it. The always differing shapes and complex pre-moulded forms it has taken on even to enclose a stupid memory stick which in its turn is made of plastic. Ugh. And then all the things that do not look like plastic but really are - fake materials in clothing or furnishings that are essentially plastics. And it is saturated in chemicals. We are fcuked. Okay, I'm going to go on a little walk now to cheer mysef up in a non-plastic woods. Bah.

Harry Palmr

Another reason to grow your own water.

kowloon

Sometimes I have to eat my cards to stop me buying crap from Amazon.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Just as "the size of Belgium" is the internationally recognised unit for rain forest depletion.

How many football fields is there in a Belgium?

Conchir

Zorya wrote: »

Yesh, it's sad. Plastic was one of the very worst things ever invented. I cannot believe sometimes how much plastic there is in the world. How much utter crap made out of plastic we buy. How much everything is wrapped in it. The always differing shapes and complex pre-moulded forms it has taken on even to enclose a stupid memory stick which in its turn is made of plastic. Ugh. And then all the things that do not look like plastic but really are - fake materials in clothing or furnishings that are essentially plastics. And it is saturated in chemicals. We are fcuked. Okay, I'm going to go on a little walk now to cheer mysef up in a non-plastic woods. Bah.

Unfortunately though, it's a very complex issue. Plastic has really made the modern, globalised world we live in. Things like transport and trade rely heavily on plastic; without it, planes, cars and trucks would be much heavier, requiring more fuel to run. Plastic has also done wonders for food safety, though it has gone completely off the scale in the West with plastic packaging. Plastic is also used in medicine.

It comes down to a number of things, from consumer choices to waste and water management, and to plastic alternatives. No single approach will solve it. One thing you see often is that we should just move to biodegradable plastic; that ignores the fact that biodegradable often only means something in an industrial composter built specifically for that; discarding biodegradable plastic in the sea or a field will do nothing. Management of plastic after its use is probably more important an issue than moving to biodegradable.

That's before you get into the fact that plastics are products of the fossil fuel industry; I think it's something like 6-8% of global oil production goes towards plastic.

Harry Palmr

Maybe Graphene can come to our rescue. There is plenty of discussion about it as a replacement.

Zorya

Conchir wrote: »

Unfortunately though, it's a very complex issue. Plastic has really made the modern, globalised world we live in. Things like transport and trade rely heavily on plastic; without it, planes, cars and trucks would be much heavier, requiring more fuel to run. Plastic has also done wonders for food safety, though it has gone completely off the scale in the West with plastic packaging. Plastic is also used in medicine.

It comes down to a number of things, from consumer choices to waste and water management, and to plastic alternatives. No single approach will solve it. One thing you see often is that we should just move to biodegradable plastic; that ignores the fact that biodegradable often only means something in an industrial composter built specifically for that; discarding biodegradable plastic in the sea or a field will do nothing. Management of plastic after its use is probably more important an issue than moving to biodegradable.

That's before you get into the fact that plastics are products of the fossil fuel industry; I think it's something like 6-8% of global oil production goes towards plastic.

Yeah, I know it's complex, though I did not know as detailed as that - and I also think there is no going back. Another Pandora's Box we humans opened that cannot be closed. Even substitutes will be man made efforts most likely and in a few decades we will discover we are somehow coated in that too.
But aside from all the necessary things like transport, medical devices etc., there is just so much unnecessary stuff. Waffle makers, constantly updated coffee making machines, another plastic gizmo for the baby, 4 triply plastic wrapped pears that never ripen anyway. We have got to stop buying this crap. Meh. My cheering woodland walk was way too short, because I am quite sick at the moment. Bah again. Shakes fists weakly at omnipresent plastic. :pac:

biko

It's good there is so much recent attention on this plastic stuff.
We really need to get to cleaning up all that crap asap.
By "we" I mean to make the nations that pollute the seas to do it, with our help of course.

kowloon

biko wrote: »

It's good there is so much recent attention on this plastic stuff.

You just know a whole bunch of people have already, or will dismiss the recent attention as the next hyped up climate nonsense by do-gooder leftists. Hopefully the fact that they can show actual pictures of plastic waste rather than studies and other and scientific nonsense it'll be harder to dismiss.

IAMAMORON

This thread needs to be moved to the politics café before it starts getting nasty.

Thelonious Monk

I really wish they wouldn't sell plastic bottles of coke etc around schools. The kids in Dublin seem to buy them constantly and just f*ck them around the place. You shouldn't be allowed sell them anywhere near schools because of this, never mind how unhealthy they are.

adox

Something something credit crunch.

Thelonious Monk

biko wrote: »

By "we" I mean to make the nations that pollute the seas to do it, with our help of course.

So pretty much every nation on the planet to some extent?

kneemos

IAMAMORON wrote: »

This thread needs to be moved to the politics café before it starts getting nasty.

Everything should be moved to the politics cafe.

Your Face

"Plastic pollution is so widespread that people may be ingesting 5g a week, the equivalent of eating a credit card, a study commissioned by the environmental charity WWF International said on Wednesday."

Ardillaun

Plastic and PCBs galore in the oceans’ deepest trenches:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/deepest-ocean-trenches-animals-eat-plastic/583657/

Hobosan

The people used for the study calls results into question. 'Kids with a Cadbury Eclair addiction were randomly selected to measure plastic consumption in humans'.

Ardillaun

There’s no doubt that the vast majority of us are consuming some plastic on an annual basis.

Problem Of Motivation

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

We're gonna die anyway.

why not get there quicker

Problem Of Motivation

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

Any research/findings commissioned by an activist group can be taken with a grain of salt.

Keep your head buried in the sand then.

Problem Of Motivation

If there's plastic in bottled water, then doesn't this mean that there must therefore be plastic particles in fizzy drinks, juices, coffee and alcohol too? In fact wouldn't there be more plastic these than water? There should be more clarity on whether this is tap water (urban supply or private well) or bottled water. If there are "3.8 fibers per liter" in EU tap water, then I can't see that coming to a credit card size of plastic per week!

What I'd actually be more concerned about is the size of the plastic particles that are ingested, and not the total weight consumed per week. I heard someone on the news say that one source could be that the plastic in bottled water is slowly being dissolved. If that's true, then such particles can't be seen with the eye, and I can't see such a source adding up to the weight of a credit.
I'd like to get a straight answer to this.

And why is honey mentioned?

Problem Of Motivation

Conchir wrote: »

This has caused changes to fertility and feeding behaviour in some cases (one paper I read was on oysters: ingestion of micro-polystyrene caused a reduction in sperm count, egg size and occurrence, and feeding behaviour was changed. Another concerned medaka, a type of fish found in rice fields; after exposure to micro-polyethylene, estrogen receptors in females were reduced, affecting fertility).

And yet no one can come up with an answer as to why male sperm counts are down.