Microplastics Found In Human Hearts For First Time, Showing Impact Of Pollution::A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology for found microplastics in the hearts and blood of humans undergoing cardiac surgery.
Microplastics Found In Human Hearts For First Time, Showing Impact Of Pollution::A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology for found microplastics in the hearts and blood of humans undergoing cardiac surgery.
The problem is that many medical devices for the disabled and chronically ill are made of plastic. It’s why the disability community protested the plastic straw ban, since many of them require to use them to consume anything.
I genuinely emphasize with the people that rely on plastic materials to get through life, it’s tough in that situation. I think the solution for straws (since that’s a more simple solution) would be either something reusable like metal staws or something compostable like agave straws. Medical applications should replace with compostable plastics like hemp. My point is that stopping cold turkey with petroleum based plastics would be better than trying to slowly phase it out. The plastics cartel will do anything to slow down the phase out
Implantable devices can’t be compostable. Catheters and other things that will go inside your body cannot be compostable. That’s not the easy solution you think it is.
I know, and I don’t have any solid solutions. I’m a single person that never studied materials science. I’d love to have all the solutions, but I don’t. The plastic waste that comes to mind for me in a medical setting is the packaging for sterile products, which could definitely be made of industrially compostable materials. Implantable devices is far more complex, but biologically inert metals exist.
The packaging could not be either. Sterility has to be assured for the shelf life of the device. Those are typically years. These materials aren’t just cheap or convenient. They’ve been vetted over decades of research and testing.
Now this isn’t meant to rain on your parade. Just showing how even the best intentions can fall short. Tossing out solutions in areas you aren’t familiar with can just muddy discussions.
That can be a hard lesson to learn, but it’s a great one. If there were awards on here, I’d give you one… In place accept this 🌟
This is such an uninformed take. Plastics are literally everywhere in modern life. Not just the store bags or straws and lids, but objects in the home like appliances, buckles on backpacks, medical devices, items we launch into space. It’s not been shown to meaningfully decrease life expectancy and we may find ways to remove it from our bodies. Cold turkey and you essentially have no infrastructure to replace what is made with plastics.
There are places where it’s absolutely necessary, there are places where it’s inconvenient to get rid of but a good idea, and there are places where it’s absolutely stupid to use plastic.
So it’s an “uninformed take” when I know that 90% of plastics that make it to recycling plants aren’t recycled, and that petroleum plastics are part of the driving factors leading us towards climate chaos?
I think plastics are genuinely awesome, but we are over-reliant on them. I’d also rather not drive, but there will always be someone who has a use for cars.
I could remove single-use plastics from my life if my groceries were packaged sustainably. But for example, scientists use single-use plastics and that’s a good thing.