Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2198 readers

29 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Awa@lemmy.world

WhoRoger@lemmy.world

RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world

190

Microplastics are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: ‘There’s nowhere left untouched’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

23 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Twenty-four brain samples collected in early 2024 measured on average about 0.5% plastic by weight

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that microplastics are accumulating in critical human organs, including the brain, leading researchers to call for more urgent actions to rein in plastic pollution.

Studies have detected tiny shards and specks of plastics in human lungs, placentas, reproductive organs, livers, kidneys, knee and elbow joints, blood vessels and bone marrow.

Given the research findings, “it is now imperative to declare a global emergency” to deal with plastic pollution, said Sedat Gündoğdu, who studies microplastics at Cukurova University in Turkey.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Interesting (and terrifying) that microplastics could get past the blood-brain barrier. I'm wondering if it's because newly developed tissue incorporates contaminants and so the plastic was there since the brain developed, rather than it infiltrating the brain over time. Then we could at least say that the contamination won't get worse once you're an adult. But the tissue samples being 1/200th plastic - which is insane - doesn't inspire much hope.

Has there been a single place where microplastic contamination hasn't been found yet? I'm hoping the best possible timeline occurs and all these studies end up retracted due to the plastic contamination happening during the sample preparation/testing process or something, rather than us actually being that screwed.