• Sgarcnl@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    At 600 degrees, there is probably some reaction happening there that may be similar to plastics. Basically, creating brain plastic and cooking it off to measure plastics. Im a bit skeptic.

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 hours ago

      I’m a microbiologist but my grad school work, research, and coursework was very chemistry heavy. There are no “probably does somethings” of significance here: the chemistry of plastic generation is extremely well researched.

      Plastic is made of polymerized hydrocarbons, linked up identical tiny units of carbon strands called monomers. Polymerization, the linkage of the monomers into a polymer, requires the use of a catalyst. This is often done with increased heat and pressure to increase the speed of polymerization. Maximum temperatures are around 350°C for certain plastics but are more commonly 140-160°C as higher temperatures can cause the material to break down. Once the desired size of linkage is created, the polymer is capped to keep it from growing further.

      Polymerized hydrocarbons degrade, not further polymerize somehow, at high temperatures like 600° C. Saying there’s some mysterious, high-heat-driven polymerization is like saying burning wood, which is largely a polymer of glucose called cellulose, somehow creates more cellulose as it burns. The burning is due to the release of the energy contained in the bonds in the wood as they break down and react with oxygen.

      Even if the process DID somehow create some plastic, a given mass of brain tissue would be expected to create predictable amounts of this mystery polymer, giving a background measurement that can be subtracted. Again, though, we know how this all works so it’s not really a concern.

  • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    So what? We all have to make a bit of sacrifice to maximize shareholder value. Stop whining about it!

    Tap for spoiler

    /s

  • vane@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I’m a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world
    Life in plastic, it’s fantastic

  • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    The researchers speculate that microplastics could contribute to neurological conditions by obstructing blood flow, interfering with neural connections, or triggering inflammation in the brain.

    A whole generation dumbed down by lead and now microplastics. We fucked

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      This is just one more apocalypse to add to the pile. We are no more fucked that before we knew about this. Humanity can only die once.

      Still, kinda shit, eh?

      • Suite404@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        The shitty part is it won’t just be us. Animals who had nothing to do with our shit will likely die right along with us.

  • Zacryon@feddit.org
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    10 hours ago

    He believes that food, especially meat, is the primary source of microplastics entering the body, as commercial meat production tends to accumulate plastic particles within the food chain.

    “The way we irrigate fields with plastic-contaminated water, we postulate that the plastics build up there,” Campen said. “We feed those crops to our livestock. We take the manure and put it back on the field, so there may be a sort of feed-forward biomagnification.”

    Go vegan, I guess?

    • Jazsta@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Yes, and:

      “Bottled water alone can expose people to nearly as many microplastic particles annually as all ingested and inhaled sources combined,” said Brandon Luu, an Internal Medicine Resident at the University of Toronto. “Switching to tap water could reduce this exposure by almost 90%, making it one of the simplest ways to cut down on microplastic intake.”

      • musubibreakfast@lemm.ee
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        4 hours ago

        We’re all gonna be drinking from the hose and eating peanut butter sandwiches out of aluminium foil wrappers like a bunch of gen-x kids.

    • peteyestee@feddit.org
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      11 hours ago

      For real. And now I feel like people are either extremely stupid or just monsters for having kids.

      Humanity is wasted. Its wild that I think I might actually favor a humanity ending natural disaster over continuing whatever the fuck humans are doing now.

      • markko@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Edgy…

        Despite having no desire to have kids, I’d much rather be born today than pretty much any time before the last few generations.

        • Suite404@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          That really depends on where you were born and what status you were born into. You could be born into a lot of places today that you would starve or live under miserable conditions.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    16 hours ago

    A relative bright spot amidst a sea of bad news:

    "Bottled water alone can expose people to nearly as many microplastic particles annually as all ingested and inhaled sources combined,” said Brandon Luu, an Internal Medicine Resident at the University of Toronto. “Switching to tap water could reduce this exposure by almost 90%, making it one of the simplest ways to cut down on microplastic intake.”

    Dunno if anyone reading this is still drinking bottled water, but, uh, now you have another reason to not do that.

    • Merlin@lemm.ee
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      23 minutes ago

      Does anyone knows of those brita filters that’s pretty much a plastic jar would leak as much microplastics as a regular bottle of water?

      • Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 hours ago

        On average, disposable plastic bottles shed microplastics much more prolifically than plastic water piping.

        • Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 hours ago

          That would seem to be the explanation on the face of it. Piping is made from heavier duty plastic. But I’ve heard that PVC can start leaking some nasty chemicals over the decades. Is that better or worse than microplastics?

          • kitnaht@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            PVC fell out of use in the 2000s, most buildings use PEX now; but I don’t know how that compares.

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        You have to remember that plastic containers aren’t washed before they are filled with product. That’s often where much of the micro/nano plastics come from.

    • CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee
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      11 hours ago

      I’ve been drinking exclusively from a water bottle with a filter for a few years at this point and it feels less and less paranoid.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        10 hours ago

        I started putting aluminum foil, folded a few times to the size of a typical card, in my wallet, in each flap… a year or two after credit and debit cards started getting RFID chips (the things that let you tap as oppose to swipe), and thus could be scanned and cloned by a guy walking around with a device in their backpack… and one of my cards was cloned this way.

        Everyone called me paranoid.

        Faraday cages block radio signals… RFID works via radio signals.

        Then, that form of cloning cards became more popular, and now, most wallets just feature a bit of metallic weave or layer in them somewhere to prevent that, or the ekster and ridge wallets that just are metal.

    • Noodle07@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Imma help my brain and switch to a soda fountain at home then. I could just drink water but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        If you can find a way to do an at home soda making process that doesn’t involve the soda flavor packets being … in plastic… than that would be ideal, I think.

        Similarly, time to go back to beans + grinder or grounds that come in a non plastic package for coffee… stop using keurigs and pods… thats all plastic.

        I just stopped drinking soda regularly and switched over to 99% water a long time ago.

        I treat soda as a dessert, like ice cream or a brownie, only have a few a week, or month.

        Soda and bottled water also have absurdly high margins, absurdly high costs to buy per what it cost the company to make.

        A fountain soda at a fast food place in America has about a 1125% markup / margin.

        If you paid 2 dollars for the soda, the actual soda cost 0.18 cents.

        Not 18 cents.

        0.18 cents.

        A fifth of a penny.

        Bottled water is around 900% to 1000% markup / profit margin.

        • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Espresso pods are usually aluminum, and recyclable. Amazon and other cheap brands do make plastic ones now that the patent ran out, but the better brands are not plastic.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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            10 hours ago

            Huh, all the pods I ever found at grocery stores were plastic, back when I had a … pod-based coffee machine.

        • ThePunnyMan@lemm.ee
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          12 hours ago

          It takes time but making fermented drinks that are carbonated like ginger beer is actually pretty easy. There’s plenty of resources online. Just make sure you use pressure safe bottles for second fermentation.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      15 hours ago

      This would mean any liquid in plastic is a large source. Bottled water has other options, not so much the rest. I mean they could have different packaging and some do, but cost is a reason plastic is primarily used.

      • zecg@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I was curious about this since a plastic bottle that held water for years doesn’t show any wear on the inside and found out it’s not the bottle that’s the likely source but the filters they use prior to bottling, which have a plastic mesh system. The bottle can stills leech BPA and is best avoided.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        glass bottled soda > canned soda > plastic contained soda or fountain drinks

        … maybe we will end up with a bottlecap psuedo currency after all.

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        13 hours ago

        Especially things with carbonic or citric acid are probably even worse here

        Edit: and we need to keep in mind, the aluminium cans also have a plastic liner inside. So those probably aren’t better either…

        Shit thing, that glass is so heavy to move around.
        And pretty much everything is stored in large plastic containers during production, until it’s filled into whatever.

        Not sure how we can actually get around this.
        The best thing we can do, is probably just reducing the plastic intake, by avoiding plastic bottles, as they are much more prone to decay due to UV light and long term storage.

        But well, I guess, we’re fucked here as well

        • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          I got a soda stream with glass bottles. You can make soda from fruit (lemons and oranges are especially delicious - plus I can control whatever sweetener I use). Also, if you really want cola, then you can get concentrated syrup so there’s less plastic and liquid transport overall.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            I wish it were easier to find name-brand cola syrup in larger sizes than those 14.8 fl oz Sodastream ones. Seems like bag-in-box syrups are only sold to actual business owners, not the general public.

          • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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            12 hours ago

            Yeah, having the same thing at home

            But I still like beer, fruit juices (and not just syrups) and so on

            But the soda stream is quite in use by my wife

        • NotLemming@lemm.ee
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          12 hours ago

          I have one of those fancy vacuum bottles. As far as I’m aware the only plastic is a small ring for the seal, which isn’t in contact with the water. What do you think? Is my brain double plastic?

    • eronth@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      And what about plastic bottles. Like, not the packaging type but just plastic reusable waterbottles?

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        They are bad.

        Get a ceramic mug, or canteen/water bottle with an aluminum or stainless steel internal lining, drink your tap water out of that, filter it if your tap quality sucks.

        • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          is aluminum a good idea? I remember reading that lots of years ago the use of aluminum cutlery contributed to developing dementia

    • courageousstep@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      I assume soda and other bottled drinks are included in this warning, as well as any other container lined with plastic, and I think some canned drinks and food are….which, uh, sucks.

    • teamevil@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Unless you live in one of the many countries without potable drinking water…also do you think the micro plastics are filtered out? I’m actually asking if they’re filtered out

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        14 hours ago

        As far as I know, off the top if my head, there are not any affordable, attach to the tap in your sink type filters that actually filter out microplastics.

        I may be out of date on that, been about 2 years since I last looked at filters… but yeah, afaik, we have no idea how to effectively filter out microplastics from water at an end user standpoint, as we do for other, older, mkre commonly worried about water pollutants.

        … I guess if you fully boiled all your water to the point it is all steam, and then condenses back ti water, in a glass or metal recepticle, that might do something for reducing microplastics, but that is insanely energy and time intensive.

        • teamevil@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          I hope you’re right …but also how much water/soda do we drink out of plastic without even thinking about it?

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    This is why I do the following once per fortnight:

    1. Obtain 1 liter of pharmaceutical-grade acetone.
    2. Heat the acetone to 150C to sterilize it.
    3. Cover the acetone with a sterile cover and let it cool to room temperature.
    4. While the acetone is cooling, drill a small hole in skull with a heat-sterilized drill bit. (Or re-use previously drilled skull port.)
    5. Once cooled, using a large syringe, inject 1 liter of sterile acetone directly into skull.
    6. Shake head around for 2 minutes, let sit for 30 minutes.
    7. After 30 minutes, attach new sterile needle to syringe and insert into skull port.
    8. Withdraw 1 liter of fluid from skull.

    Acetone will dissolve the microplastics inside your brain. Afterwards, the resulting solution can simply be syringed out and discarded. Alternately, the resulting solution can be recycled as an effective paint thinner.

    /s (This WOULD remove microplastics from your brain, but it would also mean you wouldn’t have to worry about microplastics at all, on the account of simply being dead.)

  • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Plastic has been the best and worst invention in human existence. We need a replacement for this asap.

    • gressen@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      We should start by subsidizing plant based materials instead of oil based. We’re literary paying extra to make more plastic.