• halfempty@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I saw today that they have found that over 80% of the microplastics in the ocean are from automobile tires.

    • interolivary@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis

      I’d be willing to wager it’s mostly due to it being safer to be “out” than it was just a few decades ago. Speaking as a 40-odd trans person, growing up in the 80’s meant a much higher chance of getting your ass kicked or worse by your “peers” if you stepped out of line when it came to gender expression. I’ve always been what I am now, it’s just that it’s been safe to actually do it “out loud”, at least for the past decade or so – that seems to be changing now that the right is radicalizing rapidly.

    • adderaline@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      that’s far from what the study says. there is no research on the effects of plastic chemicals in human beings cited in the study, the vast majority of the data is in rats and mice. saying that its responsible for trans people requires some very large leaps of logic that aren’t supported by the data or the conclusion of the study.

      we have a great deal of anthropological evidence that other cultures conceive of sex and gender in wildly differing ways, both through history and in the modern era. gender identity is a complex social and cultural phenomenon, not some essential trait of the human body with a basis in endocrine function. maybe i’m just sensitive to this shit, but i can’t see somebody making a claim like this without just fundamentally misunderstanding what being trans is.

    • Tankton@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Holy shit, how is this not a super high priority right now? Not because of trans people but the conclusion that microplastics interfere with hormones seems super fucked up

    • erogenouswarzone@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I was reading What to expect before you’re expecting and it says to stay away from any food that comes in any kind of plastic, esp if the plastic container needs to be heated/re-heated.

      It says when it gets into your blood stream your body thinks it’s estrogen.

      The most fucked up part is the EPA says the risk is very low. Probably because plastics are literally everywhere, and banning them at this point would cause an economic catastrophe. Which it def would.

      https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/bpa/faq-20058331

      This is an article about BPAs, but they are just the tip of the iceberg of the phtalates - chemicals used to make plastic more durable.

    • Sigh_Bafanada@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Actually, this is genius. Get the right wing climate change deniers to fight climate change by telling them that microplastics will turn their Chad of a son into a sissy girl

      • 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        they’d just inject trans women with extra testosterone to “cure” them, making them all commit suicide.

    • xanu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      transgenderism has been a prominent aspect of virtually all human cultures dating back to the dawn of civilization. it wasn’t until the Victorian era and colonialism that it was demonized. it’s not some new phenomena caused by microplastics

      • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, but it’s possible the chances of it occuring are increased with micro plastics. Kinda like how exposure to some chemicals used in plastics seems to increase the likelihood of a child having ADHD. It’s not the sole reason, nor are trans people new, but micro plastics might make trans people more common.

        • Eloise@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Current demographic information seems to suggest that transgender people are no more frequent than they have been historically, just more visible / likely to come out.

          • noobdoomguy8658@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            This. I’ve seen more people come out as a part of some minority in last several years than, say, in 2000s in general, and that’s not a time span during which any alleged and meaningful genetic or biological changes could play a role. It’s just a much better and safer time to come out compared to everything before.

            • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Almost exactly the same kind of situation with mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD, you see people scream that the rates are rising and trying to pin it on external factors without even considering that the medical diagnosis/process and tracking of all of that has consistently improved, it just makes sense we’d be seeing more examples as previously undiagnosed “weird” people are able to diagnosed.

              • noobdoomguy8658@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD

                These aren’t really illnesses, though. Think of it as of being left- or right-handed - it’s your brain functioning in a different way, but not a pathological one.

      • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        He was somewhat lol, but of course uses the facts to twist it into a different narrative entirely, that’s what he do.

  • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    New cyberpunk future just dropped:

    Companies mimic existing console terms and agreement whereby their products are still their property despite you having bought them, and can now demand ownership over fetuses as they are now at least 1% company property. WW3 will be between the Applings, Googlers and Amazonites. Personally I’m rooting for Amazon because out of those three they’ve already gone the cool route with how they’ve mentally roboticized their work force; exchanging parts of their bodies with actual machine parts is just the next logical step and will help them do their jobs better and faster. The Googlers will still have an edge because they know where everything is, and they know how it all works. The Applings? They’re the scrappy underdogs just like they are today; no one thinks Apple can keep up and they keep dicing with death but keep winning even though the odds have been stacked against them; Apple’s the plucky underdog it’s always been, coming up with brand new gadgets every single time.

    Honestly corporations keep showing us a brighter and cooler future! If we’re lucky, blade runner and cyberpunk 2077 will just be the tip of the iceberg.

    The secret in all this though? Everyone cuts a deal with the Nestlers; they’ll own all the water, and that water? Primary source of fetus microplastics; you want to tip the tides in favor of a new legion of Applings in twenty years? You grease the Nestler palm.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    The rate of plastic trash and especially car treat related microplastic dust blown everywhere is only going up no matter what we know about it. grillman

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’ve been reading the wikipedia article, not through all of it yet.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics

    Some highlights:
    Bottled water has much higher microplastics content than tap water.

    Coral can ingest microplastics

    Waste water treatment plants filter out most (but not all) microbeads into sludge. Some places use that sludge as fertilizer for farms.

    Microplastics are in stuff you would not guess. Paper coffee cups have a plastic liner. Clothes put off large amounts of microplastics when washed. Tires put off microplastics. Some exfoliants and other cosmetics contain microplastics as microbeads.

  • PorkRollWobbly@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Well what do you expect us to do about it; completely change our way of living as we know it and have been choosing not to do so for the past 50 years?

      • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, we’ve really done a fantastic job fucking the world up in the last century. It’s truly incredible that in the blink of an eye, we’ve managed to doom most of the life that exists on our planet.

        • saltesc@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wait until we black out the sun to stop the machines that are trying to stop us for plaguing everything.

          We all knew Agent Smith was 100% right