To feel frightened/powerless in face of plastics

[CreamLampshade]

Even if I tried, I cannot avoid micro plastics - they are in our water and our food. And the evidence is mounting that they are fucking us up in so many ways.

the latest studies show they are probably behind the massive decline in male fertility: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/20/microplastics-human-testicles-study-sperm-counts

(I have suspected this for years as they are endocrine disrupters).

what can we do? It’s bloody everywhere and so hard to avoid without a lot of effort. Does anyone manage it? Is anyone else nervous too?

i worry for our children and all the crap that is accumulating in their bodies.

Since the world is heavily overpopulated, maybe it's not a bad thing it's negatively impacting male fertility....

It's a vicious cycle. The planet will be fine, we however, will not

Also growing links between plastics exposure and autism / adhd: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/common-plastic-additive-linked-autism-adhd#What-is-BPA-and-is-it-harmful?

I would love to know why I am being unreasonable? Genuinely curious as this is really bothering me!

No answers other than I share your despair. Ticking time bomb comes to mind.

Except it's also affecting all the other species on earth too. They have no choice but to ingest the same mocroplastics as us. What right do we have to inflict that on the rest of the ecosystem we share the planet with?

There’s nothing any of us can do about it. Microplastics are already inside all of our bodies.

Yes, I agree with this - we are affecting everything, from our fish to our birds to our soil with plastics and other forever chemicals which don’t degrade and stay in our water and land forever. It’s frightening. And the water companies COULD filter it out but of course they don’t. So we drink, breathe and eat them. It’s just awful.

Yanbu — it’s highly troubling.

Go back 150 years and there was no plastic anywhere. Now it’s inside us. All of us. And fish, and animals. And it’s all over the planet, and it will never go away.

I just finished watching Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo, great film. Its a true story about the teflon scandal and forever chemicals - on our pans, clothes etc... it's the stuff of nightmares and it's all true.

It's in our water.

Highly recommend the film if anyone is interested.

It’s so difficult as our actions are minute, compared to the changes we’d see if big companies handled their single use plastics better. Supermarkets, for example. It’s horrible, I recycle as much as I can, used cloth nappies to reduce our waste, reuse where we can, reusable coffee flasks etc etc - a drop in the ocean, realistically.

We don’t have any right, but that’s just bog standard human behaviour - we’re trashing the planet as we have done for hundreds of years.

So much scares me for our kids it really does and this is definitely one that bothers me a lot. I don’t know the answer but the water companies are criminal

Seriously your blaming micro plastic for autism and adhd?

‘I’ and not ‘blaming’ plastics for autism and adhd. I said - and I quote that ‘studies’ show a ‘growing link’. That is quite a different thing. And one of many potential health effects of plastics.

don’t put words in my mouth.

I also posted a link to a well-known scientific publication - hardly made it up from thin air.

Yes it is tricky when you think about the tide of plastic we have all created without realising the issues. I guess the only thing we can do is change our own behaviour and put pressure on big business and government.

do any of you try to avoid eating out of / drinking from / cooking with plastics etc? I’m wondering how far to go. I feel like I’m almost developing a fear of it which I’m not sure I’d healthy but I just hate how inescapable it seems to be, especially if you can’t spend lots of time sourcing plastic free groceries or cooking and eat on the run etc.

Thanks, I will take a look.

it’s more insidious than the opioid crisis / sackler family cover up but honestly, I think just as bad if you look at the systemic effects and cumulation over decades in every single system in the earth and what that could mean for our health now and in the future.

I know and you feel powerless as an individual.

But thank you OP. I've been meaning to for a while but this thread has prompted me to invest in a water filter at least. It's not much but it's a start.

If you want a rabbit hole google asbestos in our make up. I think it may be the next big scandal.

Thank you - for anyone else interested it's available on BBC Four for the next 5 days.

Growing link for a problem that has always been here before plastic?

Agree, add in forever chemicals like PFAS and biodiversity crash, soil fertility and climate change and I despair regularly about world kids are going to inherit.

I agree OP. We are (knowingly) completely trashing our beautiful planet. With all our intelligence it could be so different, but wealth and greed has taken over.

I'm increasingly glad having children has not worked out for me. Our planet in (50? 100?) years time is going to be a frightening place. I'm naturally optimistic, but the future looks grim.

Same. I'm not a pessimist by nature, but every available indicator is showing us moving in a dangerous direction, and faster than people might have previously predicted. I'm also very glad to be childfree.

Actually, the water companies couldn't do much about it, instead this is on all of us.

E.g. Plastic waste that ends up in the sea breaks down and is ingested by fish.... that's not the fault of water companies. It's the 8bn humans (mostly the wealthiest 20% of them) and our capitalist economy that is to blame for the mountains of plastic waste we create.

Honestly no, I don't give this a second thought. I have more than enough on my plate just day to day without worrying about these kinds of issues. However, were I to be in your situation I would put in the time to source and buy metal water bottles, non plastic food wrap, shop in greengrocers with paper bags, go to those refill shops and use shampoo and soap bars. Once you've established your normal "buys" it won't be so time consuming and I imagine a lot can be found online.
Overall, I'm far more concerned that the level.of stress and anxiety these kind of issues cause start to.impact people's ability to get on with daily life. Until multinationals and governments start making wholesale changes, anything on the domestic level makes little difference.

Humans have always faced threats. Starvation, war, nuclear war, plagues and pandemics. You’ll drive yourself crazy if you overthink it. Do what you can in your own small way and live your life.