HappiestIguana t1_irds8ee wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:08 AM

Reply to comment by tabac-en-paris in Widely used sewer pipe repair technology creates and emits nanoplastics into the air by ajwhelton

Basically, we don't know. The problem is we haven't found any population of humans without blood microplastics, so we can't compare a population with them to one without.

If there are ill effects, they seem to be small, considering life expentancy has continued to rise across the globe despite the increase in microplastics (with a hiccup due to Covid). Possibly a study could be made that compares a population of animals raised on a very specific, filtered diet free of microplastics to one that receives the same diet but unfiltered (and perhaps even a third population with a diet that is deliberately laced with higher doses of microplastics). No guarantees that this will translate to humans, but it would be a start. In any case research is ongoing.

Spaceork3001 t1_irduq2x wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:50 AM

Couldn't large scale studies pry apart some correlation between the amount of microplastics and the incidence of different diseases? If controlled sufficiently for similar lifestyles, this could potentially point us in the right direction, without needing to find a subpopulation with zero microplastics in their blood.

HappiestIguana t1_irfirjb wrote on October 7, 2022 at 6:11 PM

The problem there is confounding factors. Microplastic exposure is largely based on geography and socioeconomic class, which are both heavily correlated with health outcomes and have been since before microplastics.

Spaceork3001 t1_irg3mz3 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 8:52 PM

That's what I meant with being controlled for similar lifestyles. If factors like wealth, education, BMI, drug use, medical history and so on are held constant, and microplastics amount in blood scales with some type of disease, it could point us in the right direction, no? Without having to necessarily study populations without microplastics exposure.