42
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Neuromancer49@midwest.social 6 points 1 week ago

Scientist here. Microplastics in the body are too ingrained in our bodies for bloodletting to do much of anything. They're even found in fetuses.

The good news (?) is we don't know enough about microplastics to conclusively say they're horrible for our health. The bad news is, I'd bet a lot of money that they are.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

The whole situation seems pretty hopeless. Is there any hope for improving the situation, or can we only hope that our governments can ban plastic outside of necessary areas before it goes further south?

[-] Neuromancer49@midwest.social 2 points 1 week ago

Well, we don't yet have evidence that it's bad for our bodies, per se. That's step one to getting things to change, IMO. So far we just have theories. Personally, I subscribe to the theory that microplastics are linked to changes in immune cell function/inflammation, which in turn leads to changes in the brain amd leads to some types of neurodegeneratove disorders like Alzheimer's. Again, a theory, not any conclusive proof. It could be the case that microplastics aren't causing damage.

But, with the technology we have now, I can imagine some solutions. Most promising, in my opinion, would be something akin to an mRNA vaccine. Introduce the mRNA to your body to produce a protein that targets plastic and leads to its removal from the body, almost like an antibody.

But with the NIH in the United States now targeting mRNA vaccine research for "critical review" as part of Trump's agenda, the technology may not be long for this part of the world... even though it has revolutionized our ability to quickly, safely, and inexpensively produce vaccines against disease.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Well, Europe is picking up researchers now like an inverse Operation Paperclip, so it's possible research could continue.

this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
42 points (95.7% liked)

Microblog Memes

7260 readers
1107 users here now

A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.

Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.

Rules:

  1. Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
  2. Be nice.
  3. No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
  4. Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.

Related communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS