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A comment on Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human cells. Parent comment

Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by protonbob on Monday December 23, 2024 @10:54AM (#42495273)
We do know that microplastics may be reducing male fertility. I know there are others but I haven't done a ton of research [1]. Wood and stainless steel are different because we have evolved with these materials in our surroundings or at least something close to them. Also, wood, and even metals, do not have the staying power of plastic. We already do know that heavy metals are bad if they stick around in your body, but we do need metals in our diets as nutrients as well.

It should be assumed that anything that we have invented in the last 200 years should be guilty until proven innocent at this point imo. So many of the "modern marvels" have shown to have horrible health effects.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9134445/

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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by woleium on Monday December 23, 2024 @10:59AM (#42495322)
The dangers of sawdust (micro wood?) vary from species of tree to tree, but are generally well known and studied. in particular Manchineel and Yew are known to be dangerous.

Wood in its natural state is not a safe substance. African Mahogany for example is highly toxic, causing dermatitis, respiratory issues, giddiness, vomiting, boils, asthma, headaches, and nosebleeds. Has also been linked to nasal cancer.

https://www.mountainwoodworker.com/articles/toxic_woods.pdf

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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by scns on Monday December 23, 2024 @11:39AM (#42495670)
Wenge and Oak too.
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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by dylan604 on Monday December 23, 2024 @11:18AM (#42495488)
> We do know that microplastics may be reducing male fertility.

If we "know" something, would we still be using the word "may"? Know seems pretty strong for such a wishywashy result of "may".

There's definitely research in fertility rates lowering. Phtalates are receiving a lot of attention as well as an example.

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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by protonbob on Monday December 23, 2024 @11:23AM (#42495529)
I didn't say that we know that they are reducing male fertility, we know that it's very possible. I could have said it probably does. But I'm not a scientist so I'm not going to.
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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by dylan604 on Monday December 23, 2024 @12:06PM (#42495861)
We know it's very possible is a very wishywashy comment though.

Best I can say is that there are theories, but we don't know if they are true or not yet. Some people think they are, some people disagree. That's why they are not facts.

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Re:Commercial tea bags release microplastics, entering human... by pfdietz on Monday December 23, 2024 @02:56PM (#42497130)
It means "we haven't ruled it out yet". And given the difficulty of conclusively demonstrating a negative, that's a very weak claim.
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