Scientists issue dire warning: Microplastic accumulation in human brains escalating
Scientists have made a disturbing discovery: human brains contain microplastics, and at higher concentrations than other organs. Worse, brain levels have jumped 50% in just eight years.
Now I can make a spork?
The original paper about microplastics in the brain seems to have a serious methodological flaw that undermines the conclusion that our brains are swimming in microplastics.
“False positives of microplastics are common to almost all methods of detecting them,” Jones says. “This is quite a serious issue in microplastics work.”
Brain tissue contains a large amount of lipids, some of which have similar mass spectra as the plastic polyethylene, Wagner says. “Most of the presumed plastic they found is polyethylene, which to me really indicates that they didn’t really clean up their samples properly.” Jones says he shares these concerns.
This is from other microplastics researchers. See this article. So before we panic about this, let’s wait for some independent replication and more agreement in the scientific community.
Microplastics are a serious concern, and we need to deal with plastic pollution. Let’s just stick to high quality science while we do that.
Thank you for the nuance. Bad data and hyperbole doesn't help what I agreed is a serious issue.
Psypost is like the the Daily Mail of science journalism. Kind of just dismiss everything I see from them at this point. Thank you for the rebuttal.
I don't think this is the kind of neuroplasticity we're supposed to be aiming for.
Scary. Is plastic more or less expensive than cardboard/paper? I'm not sure if it's where I live, but I've noticed that during my childhood, (example) most takeout containers would be either foil or paper. Now, most of them are plastic, even the cups that contain sauces. I don't get why plastic has been embraced so much when the alternatives were far easier to recycle.
Plastic's a product from the Oil and Gas industry - a crude oil byproduct, naptha into nurdles - and they make a fucktonne of cash from it. Obviously not talking about every type of plastic or the "bio-plastics." Almost all plastic comes from O&G.
I recall a moment maybe in the early 2000s when the industry lobby tried arguing they were actually being environmentalists and serving the public good by making plastic out of what would otherwise be toxic waste, like they're responsibly using every part of the animal. So ridiculous they dropped the campaign within the week iirc.
But I think about that every time a Premier or Mayor comes out weirdly, strongly opposed to this plastic bag or that plastic straw being banned - that they're virtue signalling to the O&G lobby.
So it's not about what consumers or society embrace, or what's logical or easier. O&G don't care if we recycle it, huff the fumes melting it down, or feed it to the fishes. They don't even really care how little their nurdle sells for, just as long as they can still sell it for something.
Plastic is generally cheaper; for a while there was a misguided push against using paper/cardboard because sAvE tHe TrEeS
The plastic industry is why.
I'm not so sure what cardboard/paper you mean? If you mean something like the paper cups that coffee comes in, they also contain plastic. Dirty paper/cardboard can also not be recycled, so your pizza carton ends up in a landfill or burned. And what do you mean by foil? Genuinely curious.
In my area a lot of takeout places now offer reusable options for a deposit. Usually it is a cardboard with plastic lining container if it is one way. Except the Asian takeout places, they are all over the place from classic black plastic to aluminum containers to styropor to - circling back - the plastic carton stuff.
Plastic also has the benefit that it's really easy to make in whatever shape with injection molding, and is totally permanent, which if you don't care about disposal is great.
Meanwhile, making stuff out of a sheet of paper is a manufacturing challenge that has resulted in creative solutions like corrugation, and the container might seep through or soften or something.
There's a thing called extended producer responsibility which basically is the idea of making disposal not free anymore for the manufacturer.
Was this writen by AI?
The researchers found surprisingly high levels of microplastics in the brain tissue. The concentration of plastics in the brain was much greater than that found in the liver or kidney samples. It was also higher than levels previously reported in placentas and testes. The median amount of total plastics for 2024 brain samples was 4917 micrograms per gram, and for 2016 samples, it was 3345 micrograms per gram. For comparison, the 2024 liver and kidney samples were 433 and 404 micrograms per gram, respectively.
Even more concerning was the finding that the amount of plastic in the brain was increasing over time. Brain tissue samples from 2024 had significantly higher levels of microplastics than samples from 2016, representing an approximate 50% increase in just eight years.
Isn't that the same information just repeated after each other?
To measure the microplastics, the researchers first chemically dissolved the tissue. This created a liquid mixture. They then spun this mixture at very high speeds in a machine called a centrifuge. This process separated out any undissolved materials, including plastics, into a small pellet. Next, they heated this pellet to a very high temperature (600 degrees Celsius), a process that breaks down the plastic.
Why does this sound like somebody explaining this to a 10 year old?
I don't know if you've heard, but our brains are apparently full of plastic. We need articles like this dumbed down for us.
Yes, it is. Probably a few phrases written by a human and then a summary of the article with AI.
AI is actually known to not repeat itself. This is also why it tends to use rare/unusual words since it cannot use the same words repeatedly. Not saying this isn't AI, but repetitiveness is not really an AI trait
Not reusing words isn't the same as not repeating itself. Especially if it's been given a minimum word count, it will often restate the same information in different ways to fill space.
Of course, this can happen with actual writers as well. That's why editors used to exist.
Known not to repeat itself? You should listen HFY stories.
Just recently listened to one that referred to the gas giant outside several times and the alien chick’s long ears giving away that she’s an alien many times. We get it! Don’t need to introduce her more than once. Jesus.
So what? We all have to make a bit of sacrifice to maximize shareholder value. Stop whining about it!
It will trickle down any time now
Microsplastics have already trickled down to balls. This is what winning feels like, folks.
lets sacrifice shareholders for value instead
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.
They won't think it was suicide if I keep drinking bottled water.
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.
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
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.
The thing is that most of our piping is plastic. So how is tap water so much better?
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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
Nature is healing.
Also thanks for providing the info what it may cause.
Come on asteroid where the fuck are you….
I am longing for plastic-eating bacteria to be released into the wild. There are other materials we can use.
The medical field would be categorically fuct. Just the loss of sterile packaging would have serious consequences. Minimally invasive surgeries, joint replacements, bandages that don't adhere to wounds, stents...
Then let's consider cordage. Mountain climbing, arborists, rescue teams, sailboats (the most efficient way to cross oceans), ships, construction... the loss of just Dyneema/UHMWPE, which is a relatively new entrant to the cordage field would have seriously negative impacts.
There is a lot of energy bound up in those long molecules, and there are no unexploited niches in balanced ecosystems. There are already bacteria that can consume certain polymers under narrow conditions. Humanity is gonna be so screwed for a long time if bacteria can slip those narrow parameters.
Like what? If you're building an airplane or a sewer main all substitutes are inferior. The problem is that we're using the ultra-permanent wonder material for, like, candy wrappers.
There are plastic eating microorganisms, both fungi, and bacteria.
But, they take a long time to break down plastic. I've had a fungus that can digest plastic in a mushroom cultivation bag for nine months and only one specimen has made it through so far.
I imagine splicing the gene that allows for the production of this enzyme into an ocean bound microorganism would clean up a lot of it while not affecting most of our terristrial infrastructure.
Of course, folks put plastic tubing and what not in the ocean too, so I guess we'll all have to die instead.
Think of how many things around you are made of plastic. What about critical pieces of things like airplanes? What would you replace that with to prevent the bacteria from causing damage to them?
I could probably pick a few things on my desk right now that would be much more difficult and much more costly to produce with other materials.
I would like for you to meet my friend, the oyster mushroom. I'm wondering what level of soil accumulation we need to support massive, city-wide oyster mushroom blooms
We first need a way to use them to consume plastic in a controlled manner. There are things that simply would not be possible without these polymers and that we do not want destroyed.
I can feel it
same honestly
I am so glad I didn't bring any children into this world.
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.
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?
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.”
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.
Can plastic stay in it's plastic form after undergoing cooking?
I suppose so. Even though they already melt at typical frying or baking temperatures, they don't evaporate. Even if, the still need to find a way through the food outside and not get trapped inside, where they'll cool down again and therefore return to a solid state.
Take this with a grain of microplastic-free salt, as this is not my field.
This is why I do the following once per fortnight:
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.)
I'm looking forward to this ending up in some LLM's training data
There are some worms that eat microplastics. Have you tried injecting those? RFK says its fine, and he's very successful.
Hmmm....you might be on to something!
Doctors HATE this hack!
Well, I'm sure that's actually quite true!
NileRed does surgery
COMPLETE. GLOBAL. SATURATION.
Plastic has been the best and worst invention in human existence. We need a replacement for this asap.
We should start by subsidizing plant based materials instead of oil based. We're literary paying extra to make more plastic.
Lmfao
We're totally boned.
How the fuck are micro plastics getting into the brain?
Via our blood
More importantly, how are we getting them out?
Most plastic melts at between 200°C and 320°C. So... Uh. Let's fire up those ovens, baby.
I suggest we start with Dupont and 3M executives to field test the removal process - since they're cool with testing their products on us.
Additional suggestions encouraged. Coke-Amatil? Tyre manufacturers?
There's bacteria that can eat plastics. Lets hope they don't eat brain too.
I don't think that's an option, given that they keep increasing
So is it possible the blood-brain barrier is designed to trap nanoparticles? They do exist in nature.
Maybe that's why I'm so tired.
or not fast enough depending on how much ya like waking up to a new, fresh hell
Great! That should turning myself into a cyborg in the future all the more simple.
/s
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.
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.
Brain tissue is not as simple as cellulose, but at 600 C with the molecules that make up the molecular soup, there would definitely be some lysing that would take place and form thing like free radicals, these have the potential to react forming longer chains of carbon, which could possibly create a false positive.
What is this hypothesis based on?
It was anally sourced, their citations all point to the American Proctological Society.