this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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Magic Mineral (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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] 25 points 2 weeks 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] 5 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago

Such as increased rates of infertility iirc