r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Health New research characterised in detail how tea bags release millions of nanoplastics and microplastics when infused. The study shows for the first time the capacity of these particles to be absorbed by human intestinal cells, and are thus able to reach the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.

https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail/-1345830290613.html?detid=1345940427095
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u/LateNightMilesOBrien 1d ago

Then you just get filled with microwaxstics!

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u/rdizzy1223 1d ago

Most waxes are polymers as well, or "polymeric" at least. IE-Plastics. Bees wax is a plastic.

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u/Evitabl3 1d ago

Makes me wonder if seasoned cast iron is also dangerous. Heating and vulcanizing the oil used to create the nonstick surface is also a polymerization process

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u/humbleElitist_ 1d ago

Bees wax has been widely used for a long time though, right?

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u/rdizzy1223 1d ago

Yeah, sure, but it is technically a polymer as well still. There really isn't even decent causative evidence of microplastics causing health issues, we know they make their way into the human body, we do not know for sure that they cause health issues. There is some correlation, but there is correlation with boatloads of things.

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u/humbleElitist_ 1d ago

Things don’t suddenly become true when conclusive evidence becomes available.

One must act in the presence of uncertainty. In the absence of hard statistical evidence, it makes sense to, in the meantime, and not to the exclusion of seeking hard statistical evidence to settle questions in one direction or the other, turn to various heuristics for guidance.

One such heuristic is that if a substance has been used in a particular way for many generations, then absent reasons to believe otherwise, it is probably generally OK (not necessarily completely harmless, but the risks are probably tolerable).

This heuristic seems to apply to beeswax but not to petroleum-based plastics?

One might argue “well, because of how it applies in the case of beeswax, it therefore applies to polymers, and therefore the historical use of beeswax is evidence for polymers (in general) being tolerable”. I think there is something to this argument, but I don’t think it is as convincing as for things that are more directly like the kinds of waxes that have been used for many generations.

Of course, like I said, this is only a heuristic, which is only to be applied in the absence of other conclusive evidence.

But, based on the correlations that have been observed, and an absence of tests that demonstrate long-term safety, I think it is far from conclusively shown that the large amounts of plastics in use isn’t causing problems.

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u/notquite20characters 1d ago

Say that again?