I get the scale and that they’re found everywhere, recently even in clouds, which is shocking; but what specifically are the negatives?
To put it a little obtusely: so what?
In: 30
* Physical irritation and inflammation of the digestive tract.
* They interfere with the production, release, transport, metabolism, and elimination of hormones, which can lead to various endocrine disorders, including metabolic disorders, developmental disorders, and even reproductive disorders (i.e., infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects)
* They can carry heavy metals and other toxic materials like BPA into your body.
* Stress in the airways and lungs when inhaled, leading to inflammation and lung damage
* *We have no idea what else*, because we’re only recently discovering the issue and just starting to look into its effects.
Rigorous but non-ELI5 source: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10151227/#](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10151227/#)
A book you may want to consider:
# [A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies](https://www.amazon.com/Poison-Like-Other-Microplastics-Corrupted-ebook/dp/B0BMDFD5YX/)
They interfere with our bodies both physically, and chemically, and hormonally because a lot of plastics contain substances that are hormone mimics. Plus, there are unknown unknowns (almost certainly harmful) because we’ve never dealt with this kind of pollution historically. There are chemicals within plastics that are suspected [obesogens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesogen) (substances that may contribute to obesity), [endocrine disruptors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruptor), and sex hormone mimics that can mess with sexual expression and all sorts of other things. Male sperm count worldwide is decreasing, and the influence of these hormone mimics in plastics that everyone is exposed to is implicated in this phenomenon. (This is not solidly established, and research on this topic is ongoing, but it seems highly plausible to me.) The obesity epidemic may be partly due to the influence of chemicals that plastics expose us to. Microplastics may potentially be a major vector for the delivery of these disruptive hormone mimicking substances.
Some of the major sources of microplastics that enter your body are:
* glitter (in cosmetics, lip stick, etc. Glitter is evil. Adding glitter to something is basically directly adding microplastics pollution to that thing.)
* plastic cutting boards
* lint from synthetic fabrics
* plastic blenders
* “microwave safe” plastic food containers
The last one shocked me; apparently, these shed billions of particles into your food when heated. Heat itself apparently causes the release of plastic particles. For this reason, I don’t do sous vide cooking anymore; cooking your food in plastic that you heat along with the food just doesn’t appear to be safe. See this medical lecture from MedCram continuing medical education lectures:
# MedCram | [Microplastics in Our Food and Body: Cutting Boards, Microwaves, More](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bNySyEobfY)
This short explains the problem with plastic blenders:
# MedCram Shorts | [Blenders: Microplastics released from normal use](https://youtube.com/shorts/twegZBQ07Sg)
They’re everywhere and they don’t go away. They only build up. We are only now starting to see the effects it’s having on the world. It will get worse. They’re even found in fetuses.
They get stuck in stuff.
They aren’t harmful in and of themselves. They are harmful because they leach into your body and clog up little holes in every system in your body.
Kind of like cholesterol on a much smaller scale and in all systems.
There’re some harm to it that we know of, but it’s not major. We just don’t know the extend of its harmful effects, and that’s the scary part, we don’t know.
You better pray to god it doesn’t give you cancer later in life because it’s in the food, the water, etc, and inside your body.
We’ve use asbestos as insulation before, and at least we can take it back, not so easy with micro plastic.
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