Chemicals in everyday plastics may disrupt the body’s natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm in a way similar to coffee, which increases the risk of sleep disorders, diabetes, immune problems and cancer, new in vitro research shows.
The study looked at chemicals extracted from a PVC medical feeding tube and a polyurethane hydration pouch, like those used by long-distance runners. PVC and polyurethanes are also used in everything from kids toys to food packaging to furniture.
The findings showed for the first time how plastic chemicals probably wreak havoc on cell signals that regulate the body’s internal clock, throwing it off by up to 17 minutes.
“We don’t know the significance of it and you could say, ‘Oh it’s just 15 minutes so it’s not a big deal’, but it’s such a tightly controlled clock that it’s a significant shift,” he (Martin Wagner, a study co-author and plastic chemical researcher with the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology) added.
Being able to adapt to our environment is part of what made humans the dominant species. We’ll lose a significant portion of our population, but we’ll survive.
Plastics are already starting to impact our fertility, and that’s the nail in the coffin.
Humans are like cancer. Climate change might be removing the tumor, but plastics are the radiation/chemo that kills what’s left. Without step 2, the cancer will keep coming back.
Correction:
Humans are not cancer. Capitalism is.
No, humans are. Just look at the entirety of our history.
The world’s richest 10% are responsible for two thirds of global heating:
https://www.sciencealert.com/worlds-richest-10-caused-two-thirds-of-global-heating-study-finds
Guess how they got so filthy rich? Capitalism.
Millions and millions of people work hard every single day, for low pay and zero recognition, protecting, researching, and restoring wilderness around the world.
Millions and millions of people are concerned about climate change, and have changed their lifestyles in order to try to help and reduce the strain on our planet.
Buddy, the rich have been exploiting the masses and ruining the environment for basically all of written human history. Capitalism may have sped it up, but it’s not some new behavior that sprang up out of nowhere.
Capitalism is a product of humans, and humans have always either been shitty and exploitative, or willing to let it happen to protect what they have. No matter what system of government or economics you come up with, humans will eventually corrupt it. I believe our ability to do so is our species’s Great Filter.
The people who have fought against these behaviors were outliers.