Dec 29, 2021

Microplastics may be linked to inflammatory bowel disease, study finds

The Guardian -  As well as the link to IBD, the scientists found that people who tended to drink bottled water or eat takeaway food had about double the concentration of microplastics in their stools. In total, 15 different types of plastic were found among the microplastics. The most common were PET, used on water bottles and food containers and polyamide, which is also found in food packaging.

The level of microplastics in the faeces was similar to those in the few previous studies conducted, once differences in methodology are taken into account. One study found infants had more microplastics than adults in their faeces. This may be due to infants chewing plastic items or use of milk bottles which are known to shed millions of microplastics.

Diet and environmental factors can trigger or exacerbate IBD, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. "In recent years, the prevalence of IBD has sharply increased in developing countries in Asia," said the researchers from Nanjing University in China. "It is estimated that there will be 1.5 million IBD patients in China by 2025 which will cause a serious disease burden."

"This study provides evidence that we are indeed ingesting microplastics," said Evangelos Danopoulos at Hull York Medical school in the UK, who was not part of the study team. "It is an important study, as it widens the evidence base for human exposures. More data about possible confounding factors is needed to build a causal association to specific human health conditions."

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Dec 27, 2021

Ninety-Nine Percent of Americans Are Contaminated With a "Forever Chemical" That Lives in Thousands of Consumer Products

You and I are probably already poisoned by PFAS-contaminated water, along with 99% of Americans — adults and kids alike — according to recently-emerging studies. PFAS are "forever chemicals" found in all sorts of products, from firefighting foam, to stain-resistant carpets and Gore-Tex jackets, to cosmetics, to non-stick pans and fast food wrappers. Research shows that exposure to even extremely low levels of PFAS can be linked to unnaturally high rates of cancer, autoimmune diseases, liver and kidney diseases, birth defects, and more.

These forever chemicals linger in the environment, never biodegrading, and eventually build up in animals' and humans' bodies. They lodge in both the water we drink and also in the animals that many people eat. According to new information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), upwards of 100 million people in the U.S. — including children — are drinking contaminated water from approximately 120,000 poisoned sites across the country. And so far, the government still has not set any maximum contaminant levels for PFAS chemicals, meaning corporations are currently free to keep flooding our products, waterways, and bodies with these poisons.
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