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Exposure to phthalate compromises brain function in adult vertebrates

(www.sciencedirect.com)
139 points PaulHoule | 2 comments | 06 Nov 24 21:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.487s | source
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mandmandam ◴[06 Nov 24 23:41 UTC] No.42071347[source]▶
Reminder that a recent autopsy study found that the average American brain now has about a quarter oz of microplastics in it [0]. That's up 50% from 8 years ago. Phthalate directly in the brain itself.

Microplastic is now found basically everywhere we look, from our own testicles/ovaries and other organs, to wild animals who never heated a ready meal in the microwave in their life. Yet plastic producers show no intention to err on the side of caution when it comes to plasticizing the planet.

Which is a shame, because there are alternatives.

0 - https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/23/health/plastics-in-brain-...

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1. BizarroLand ◴[08 Nov 24 23:30 UTC] No.42091285[source]▶
I still vaguely remember hearing all the people saying to switch to plastic bags to save the trees. Huge ad campaigns, videos of sad animals and burned down, gutted forests on the TV and news all hours of the day.

25 years later and we are drowning in plastic, carrying it in our brains and gonads, it falls from the sky like rain, it is in the food we eat, our newborn children inherit the plastics from their mothers.

If I were a trickster god or the devil himself I couldn't have come up with a better joke than this.

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2. mandmandam ◴[09 Nov 24 11:46 UTC] No.42093900[source]▶
> I still vaguely remember hearing all the people saying to switch to plastic bags to save the trees. Huge ad campaigns, videos of sad animals and burned down, gutted forests on the TV and news all hours of the day.

Damn, I'd pretty much forgotten those. So bizarre.

I know for a fact that at the same time those ads were running, many scientists were telling anyone who would listen that plastic wouldn't biodegrade for thousands of years...

And then there's the crazy fact of no one ever being held responsible for all that. I think you're the first person I've heard even mention them for decades; as if they were utterly memory-holed.

Curious about this now, I'll have to look into it a bit. Thanks!