You’re Filled With Microplastics. So What?
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the pervasive issue of microplastics, highlighting their omnipresence in the environment and potential health risks. It discusses the scientific challenges in linking microplastics to negative health effects due to a lack of standardized research methods. The script calls for more awareness, standardized scientific approaches, and epidemiological studies to establish a clear connection between microplastics and health impacts, emphasizing the need for action to mitigate this growing environmental and health threat.
Takeaways
- 🧬 Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic that have been identified as a significant environmental concern due to their persistence and ubiquity.
- 🌏 Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century, with microplastics found in various ecosystems, including the highest peak and the deepest trench on Earth.
- 🔍 Microplastics have been discovered in numerous everyday items and are estimated to be ingested or inhaled by humans in substantial quantities annually.
- 🛒 The majority of microplastic ingestion comes from cosmetic products, highlighting the need for awareness and potential regulation of these items.
- 🧬 There is scientific consensus that microplastics have the potential to be harmful due to their ability to translocate within the body and carry pollutants and toxins.
- 🔬 Despite the potential risks, there is a lack of epidemiological studies directly linking microplastics to negative health effects in humans.
- 📊 The scientific community calls for more standardized research methods and epidemiological studies to definitively answer the question of microplastics' impact on human health.
- 🌱 Microplastics also pose a threat through bioaccumulation in the food chain, leading to higher concentrations in animals higher up, affecting humans who consume them.
- 🚫 The current state of research on microplastics is in a 'scientific publishing Purgatory,' indicating the complexity and the need for further investigation.
- 🌐 There is a call for increased awareness, standardization, and potentially new campaigns similar to 'reduce, reuse, recycle' to address the microplastic issue.
- 💪 The video also promotes a fitness service, Train, emphasizing the importance of health and personal well-being, indirectly suggesting that understanding and addressing microplastic exposure could contribute to better health.
Q & A
微塑料是如何进入我们身体的?
-微塑料可以通过多种途径进入我们的身体,包括通过食物链摄入、吸入空气中的微塑料颗粒,以及通过皮肤吸收。例如,我们可能会通过饮用存储或加热在塑料容器中的液体或食物摄入微塑料,或者使用含有微塑料的牙膏。此外,微塑料还可能通过空气中的微粒、水和食物进入人体。
微塑料对人体健康有哪些潜在影响?
-微塑料对人体健康的影响仍在研究之中,但已有研究表明它们可能对多个器官系统产生不利影响,包括肠道、肺部、肝脏以及生殖和神经系统。在人类中,微塑料被发现存在于血液、肺部、胎盘和母乳等多种组织和器官中。一些研究提出了微塑料与心血管疾病之间的潜在联系,以及它们在人类粪便中的浓度与炎症性肠病的严重程度相关。尽管这些研究并未证明微塑料与疾病之间的直接因果关系,但它们强调了加速研究这一主题的必要性。
微塑料在环境中的分布情况如何?
-微塑料几乎遍布全球各个角落,包括海洋、土壤、空气和食物供应。它们存在于各种环境矩阵中,如海水、河口、河流、湖泊、土壤和大气。微塑料的分布受到物理过程的影响,如风、潮汐、径流和洪水,这些过程会随着气候力量的变化而变化。
微塑料污染的主要来源是什么?
-微塑料污染的主要来源包括初级和次级来源。初级微塑料直接来自个人清洁产品、化妆品、药物载体和环境中的塑料碎片。次级微塑料则是由更大的塑料垃圾在物理、化学和生物作用下分解形成的。这些过程包括紫外线辐射、温度变化、微生物降解等。
目前科学界对微塑料的研究有哪些共识和分歧?
-科学界普遍认为微塑料是环境中的新兴污染物,并对生态系统和人类健康构成潜在威胁。然而,关于微塑料的具体健康影响、它们在环境中的行为和命运,以及如何有效管理微塑料污染,科学界仍存在分歧。一些研究强调了微塑料可能通过食物链进入人体,并在人体组织中积累,而其他研究则指出当前关于微塑料影响的研究尚不足以建立明确的健康风险评估。
微塑料污染的全球治理措施有哪些?
-全球范围内,包括欧盟在内的多个国家和地区已经开始采取措施限制微塑料的使用和排放。例如,欧盟已经禁止了在化妆品中使用微塑料,并设定了减少微塑料污染的目标。此外,联合国环境大会在175个国家的支持下,通过了一项决议,旨在制定全球塑料条约,以减少塑料污染。
微塑料在人体中的积累和分布情况如何?
-微塑料在人体中的积累和分布尚不完全清楚,但已有研究表明它们可以在血液中被检测到,并且可能通过血液循环传输到全身。微塑料的化学成分、大小和形状等特性可能会影响它们在不同组织中的行为和影响。此外,微塑料还可能通过食物链在生物体内积累,从而对人类健康构成风险。
微塑料对海洋生物的影响有哪些?
-海洋生物,包括鱼类、鸟类、海洋哺乳动物和无脊椎动物,可能会误食微塑料,导致物理阻塞、进食效率降低和营养不良。此外,微塑料还可能进入食物链,从小的初级生产者如浮游植物和海藻开始,然后通过食物链传递给更高级的消费者,包括人类。
微塑料污染的研究有哪些未来的研究方向?
-未来的研究方向包括微塑料在人体中的积累量、它们在不同组织中的分布、以及微塑料特性如何影响这些组织。此外,还需要进行机制研究,以探究微塑料可能导致损害的途径,包括通过免疫系统或微生物群的系统性效应,或直接的细胞毒性效应。
Outlines
🌐 The Microplastic Menace
The script begins by addressing the ubiquity and potential dangers of microplastics. Despite their pervasive presence in our environment, from the highest peak to the deepest ocean trench, there is a scientific debate about their impact on human health. The script highlights the vast amount of plastic produced and its resistance to degradation, leading to the creation of microplastics. It points out that while microplastics are found in various consumer products and are ingested or inhaled, the scientific consensus on their health effects is still developing. The comparison to cigarettes and public nuisances like FaceTiming without headphones is used to emphasize the societal awareness and the need for further research.
🔬 The Science of Microplastics
This section delves into the scientific aspects of microplastics, discussing their potential to cause harm due to their ability to translocate within the body and carry pollutants. The script outlines the mechanisms by which microplastics could affect various body systems, from inflammation to child development. It acknowledges the current lack of conclusive evidence linking microplastics to negative health effects in humans, due to the reliance on animal models and cellular studies rather than epidemiological studies. The need for standardized methods in scientific research and more comprehensive studies on real populations is emphasized to establish a clearer link between microplastics and health effects.
🌱 Addressing the Microplastic Issue
The final paragraph focuses on the need for action to mitigate the impact of microplastics. It suggests the establishment of global standards and controls, followed by extensive epidemiological studies to determine the health effects of microplastics. The script also touches on the concept of bioaccumulation, where microplastics accumulate in organisms higher up the food chain, potentially leading to higher concentrations in humans who consume these animals. The narrative concludes with a call for increased awareness and proactive measures to reduce plastic pollution, reflecting on the broader implications of microplastics in the environment and food chain.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Microplastics
💡Plastic Pollution
💡Environmental Challenges
💡Translocation
💡Pollutants
💡Health Effects
💡Epidemiological Studies
💡Bioaccumulation
💡Regulations
💡Science in Theory vs. Practice
💡Awareness Campaign
Highlights
Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic less than 5mm in size, found in various environments and even within our bodies.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century, with billions of tons entering the environment.
Microplastics were first identified in the 1970s and have since been found in diverse locations, from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench.
The average human ingests between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles a year, primarily from cosmetic products.
Microplastics have the potential to translocate within the body, moving from the point of entry to other tissues and the bloodstream.
High surface area and irregular shapes of microplastics make them perfect carriers for pollutants, pathogens, and toxins.
There is a lack of standardized methods for studying microplastics, leading to difficulty in comparing scientific findings.
Potential health effects of microplastics include inflammation, oxidative stress, and impacts on child development.
More epidemiological studies with living humans are needed to establish a clear link between microplastics and health effects.
Microplastics can bioaccumulate in the food chain, leading to higher concentrations in animals higher up, like tuna.
The video discusses the need for more standardized scientific methods and increased awareness about microplastics.
Sponsorship from Train, a personal fitness service, is acknowledged, highlighting the importance of health and wellness.
The video calls for a 'reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, rethink' campaign to address the new age of plastic pollution.
The potential toxicity of microplastics is compared to known carcinogens, such as cigarette smoke, emphasizing the need for further research.
The video concludes with a call to action for more research and awareness to mitigate the impact of microplastics on health and the environment.
The importance of scientific rigor in establishing a link between microplastics and health effects is emphasized throughout the video.
The video also touches on the challenges of scientific publishing and the gap between ideal and actual scientific practices.
Transcripts
I want to ask you a weird question are
microplastics actually bad for us I know
that sounds crazy that sounds like
asking whether or not cigarettes are bad
for us or whether or not FaceTiming in
public without headphones is bad for
everybody yes of course those things are
bad and equally so but for microplastics
they're in kind of a weird spot a sort
of scientific publishing Purgatory that
makes answering this question more
complicated than you think so after
today's disc discussion I want to make
two things very clear first the scope
and scale of the microplastic Menace and
two the very real difference between how
we want science to be done and how it
actually is done like the difference
between how you want to look and how you
actually yes Arya thank you for pointing
that out you could have used a more
charitable
comparison okay science
time now entering the facility
first the problem with plastic plastic
is arguably one of the most amazing and
useful materials ever created on Earth
but as such we've made a whole heck of a
lot of it like over 9 trillion kilog of
the stuff that's more than all humans
way and unlike more natural materials
like wood or something else organic
plastic doesn't really break down over
time it just gets smaller and enters the
environment sadly it won't surprise you
that the vast majority of all this
plastic is never recycled so where is it
all going well gestures
broadly plastic pollution has been
described as one of the biggest
environmental challenges of the 21st
century billions of tons of plastic have
entered the environment and though they
don't break down on any reasonable time
scale like organic material does plastic
does crack split and Splinter into
smaller and smaller pieces until it gets
small enough to be officially called
micro or even Nano Plastics researchers
often shorten this to
MPS microplastics were first identified
in the 1970s after Expeditions found the
indestructible particles floating at top
the Atlantic Ocean since then
microplastic concern has led to an
explosion of scientific interest or
rather research couldn't help but
explode after we realize that
microplastics are are in everything now
they are in so many things they're like
the Pedro Pascal of pollution
microplastics have been found on Mount
Everest they have been found at the
bottom of the Mariana's Trench they are
floating in the air buried in the soil
inside the fish that we eat inside the
water that we drink in the new Fantastic
4 movie weight that's Pedro Pascal again
with this disturbing distribution it was
inevitable then that we'd start finding
plastic inside us at least a dozen
plastic containing tissues have been
identified so far and we're finding them
in more and more sensitive areas uh
every day through inhalation and
ingestion it's estimated that the
average human person incorporates
between 74 and
121,000 microplastic particles a year
the majority of those particles actually
come from cosmetic products like
toothpaste and exfoliating scrubbers
this is why you don't need your fancy
face wash Arya uh I don't even have face
well then who keeps buying all the Kevin
Kevin are you using my credit card again
I told you it was only for
v-bucks I don't care how smooth your
skin is now your Skin's not even real
human I you you don't need it dang
synthetic children and their Lust For
v-bucks it's reasonable to assume that
maybe hundreds of thousands of tiny
plastic bits entering your blood brain
and other stuff each year is not good
but then why do the very same studies
that point this out also make a note of
saying we do not have enough evidence to
clearly link negative health effects and
microplastics well that's because doing
their due diligence like all scientists
should there's a difference between
science in theory and Science in
practice just like how a cool electric
car in theory can be better than exactly
Arya the Cyber truck problem as you see
pictured one of them right there good
comparison
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well elongate yourself along the
x-axis you can touch plastic you can
store food in it you can use it any
number of ways medically so it isn't
crazy to ask are microplastics actually
bad for human health and if so why well
the answer to the latter is that tiny
pieces of plastic do seem to have the
unique potential to be
dangerous the mechanisms aren't yet
fully understood but it appears that
microplastics have a unique ability to
translocate inside the body that is they
don't necessarily stay in the part of
the body that inhaled or ingested them
for example plastic pieces evading the
mucus membrane brain in your gut and
then making it into the surrounding
tissue or your
bloodstream this appears to be a
consequence of microplastic small size a
regular shape electric charge high
surface area and resistance to
degradation studies also point out that
the high surface area and irregular
shapes are the perfect vehicles for
pollutants pathogens and other toxins
which get into those little nooks and
crannies which make microplastics even
which make micro microplastics even more
of a
problem Oh that that's that's got to be
more than average so we think that
microplastics could be harmful but are
they it's a valid question scientists
have identified potential health effects
in at least nine systems in the body
ranging from inflation all the way to
affecting Child
Development how can little plastic
pieces affect so much of
us once micro Plastics translocate via a
mechanism like the body trying to engulf
and dispose of the macroscopic particles
or just by simple membrane damage the
foreign bodies can trigger your immune
system cause cells that encounter them
to straight up die and otherwise create
enough non-degradable microscopic chaos
that potential health effects related to
oxidative stress and cell viability and
general toxicity all start to stack up I
say potential health effects because
again these same studies also say that
we do not actually have enough evidence
to clearly link these potential effects
to real humans living in the real world
and that's because they are based on a
number of animal models and experiments
with cells and organoids not
epidemiological studies with living
humans if we want a clear link between
microplastics and health effects in
people more science is what we need and
science is hard
oh oh that was a big in too oh no though
scientists seem unified behind the idea
that the link between negative health
effects and microplastics is
sufficiently persuasive we don't yet
have unified methods for definitively
answering this hypothesis we don't have
standardized size of particles or shape
or chemical composition we don't have
standardized animal models we don't have
standardized measurement and sampling
methods in short there are a lot of
studies now out there saying a lot of
similar things but they can't all be
compared exactly so to take everything
out of the theoretical we need more
standardized ways of doing this science
and more epidemiological studies in real
people so what would a real link between
microplastics and health effects
actually look like hey that's that Kevin
that took my credit card you get back
here since young
man I can take it from here to really
link microplastics to negative health
effects what we would need first are
standards and controls instituted the
world over and then we would need many
pro and retrospective epidemiological
studies these studies would need to find
populations of people with some known
concentration of microplastics in
certain parts of their body and then
compare them to a population with a
different or no concentration if there
was a statistically significant ific
difference in the health of these
populations controlling for everything
else then it would be good evidence of
microplastics toxicity especially if it
was backed up by mechanistic
explanations it would be the same as
comparing smokers to non-smokers over a
number of years and finding
statistically significant differences in
their rates of lung cancer supported by
the known carenity of cigarette smoke
once we have that for microplastics then
we can work on regulations that can make
a difference for example if we found
that micr Plastics of a certain size and
composition were the most harmful we
could work with the largest producer of
those specific Plastics to reduce
pollution okay I'm back to really
establish a hard link between
microplastics and negative health
effects um I already said all that oh
you went through all like the population
stuff I already said all
that okay well in addition to that
epidemiology we also need just more
microplastic awareness and we need uh
maybe like a reduce reuse recycle
campaign for the new age of plastic like
reduce reuse recycle repair rethink
REI uh
repair uh other RW that the studies
suggest did you really go through all
that without me that was kind of like a
whole okay well until next time
now exiting the
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this as well another thing that uh you
have to think about with microplastics
is that they don't just go into the
environment and wait for you to ingest
or inhale them they also bio accumulate
so as they go into the food chain the
smaller thing get eaten by the higher up
things on the food chain which get
higher up and higher up and higher up
and because these things are not
excreted the microplastics stay in
tissues they tend to bioaccumulate so by
the time we start to eat some of these
animals that are higher up in the food
chain like tuna for example then they
have a higher concentration of these
microplastics that make it into our body
the same reason why tuna is high in
mercury content so it's not just moving
through our bodies and our sensitive
bits it's also moving its way all the
way through the food chain
so how do we get it out of
there I don't
know making a lot of kind of Doom and
Gloom videos lately huh how you feeling
let's do something about it
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