this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
672 points (99.7% liked)

Science Memes

11086 readers
2525 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
672
Magic Mineral (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
149 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Plastic is not very reactive. This property makes it generally not directly harmful to organic health, but also notoriously slow to decompose, causing huge amounts of pollution. I think it's misleading to compare it to asbestos.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (3 children)

From what I gather, asbestos is also very stable and not reactive. Asbestosis is caused by tiny fibers physically tearing your lungs.

It's unlikely that plastic is as dangerous (we'd seen it by now) but its buildup can likewise cause some condition.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

To be clear, asbestos is less reactive than plastic (particularly most thermoplastics) by a wide margin. One burns, the other will not. Asbestos is closer to glass. It requires incredibly high temperatures to turn it into glass as a matter of fact, as that's about the only way to dispose of it permanently.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Such as increased rates of infertility iirc

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Microplastics gathering in the brain. Most of which come from tires not food containers.