Our brains are filling up with plastic

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/21/microplastics-brain-pollution-health

Twenty-four brain samples collected in early 2024 measured on average about 0.5% plastic by weight

I’ve been wondering if humans are getting stupider – it would explain a lot. Looks like I was right.

Is this how civilization ends – not obliterated in a nuclear fire storm, or sunk beneath rising oceans, but it just becomes too hard for us to think?

Is this how civilization ends

No, by polar shift and or solar flare EMP-ing the global power grid within the next 11 years apparently:

Blimey that fella in the video reckons a poppers causing AIDS “theory” is “surprisingly compelling”

Plastic is everywhere and the long term effects on the body are not yet known. Whatever happens it can’t be good.

“Life in plastic, it’s fantastic…”

Blimey that fella in the video reckons a poppers causing AIDS “theory” is “surprisingly compelling”

I think it’s pretty well established by now that the cause of AIDS is HIV.

Not just plastic

In the 1940s the average westerner contained no man-made chemicals for the simple reason that those chemicals did not yet exist. In a recent survey conducted by the environmental organisation WWF, volunteers in 13 British cities had their blood tested for the presence of 77 man-made chemicals, including organochlorine pesticides. Every one of the volunteers was found to be multiply contaminated.

Personally I believe the rise in allergies, autism and cancer and autoimune diseases are ( in part at least) down to the amount of pollutants in the environment and in our bodies

In the 1940s the average westerner contained no man-made chemicals for the simple reason that those chemicals did not yet exist.

Thats a pretty rose-tinted view to take of the past. All the arsenic, lead and mercury in people’s systems would or course have been perfectly natural

No, by polar shift and or solar flare EMP-ing the global power grid within the next 11 years apparently:

Funny, the ongoing large solar flares and CME’s haven’t precipitated any major power outages, even in North America, with its notoriously shonky power grid system.

Personally I believe the rise in allergies, autism and cancer and autoimune diseases are ( in part at least) down to the amount of pollutants in the environment and in our bodies

Some of those issues have been detected in human remains from centuries ago, it’s quite possible that we’re just better at understanding and detecting them with improved knowledge of the human body. We don’t have enough Neanderthal remains to say for sure, but there are some modern human issues that we appear to have inherited from our Neanderthal ancestors.

Having said that, you’re not wrong about increasing levels of particulates from things like vehicle tyres, especially EV’s, because they’re so much heavier and there’s more torque causing more wear – Tesla car tyres seem to last about 9000 miles; the rear tyres on my Ford were the originals, and I got over 30k miles from those. Then there’s smoke from vast wildfires, which are crossing the Atlantic, as well as vast areas of the rest of the world.

I do have my doubts about woke mind worms, though the symptoms being shown by some people do seem to indicate some sort of parasite…

Personally I believe the rise in autism

But is there a rise in autism, or, more a rise in autism awareness. So many parents have their children assessed as autistic only for the penny to drop that they are too, likely as we’re their parents too.

Places like Nepal have minimal autism because very few Nepali’s understand what it is, as awareness increases they’ll see a huge “increase” in autism which they’ll blame on westerners angering the gods of the mountains by climbing them.

I wouldn’t worry about it. It certainly appears that many people have plenty of room up there.

Personally I believe the rise in autism

Again something you don’t have to worry about. Empires rise and fall.

I’ve been wondering if humans are getting stupider

IQ test results have been increasing for decades, it’s called the Flynn Effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Better nutrition and lower levels of pollutants such as lead are potential explanations but definitive proof is lacking.

Of course the things I mentioned have always been with us and improved diagnosis and longevity accounts for some of the rise but it certainly seems to me that all those things mentioned are also more frequent

But is there a rise in autism, or, more a rise in autism awareness. So many parents have their children assessed as autistic only for the penny to drop that they are too, likely as we’re their parents too.

Heres how autism diagnosis worked in the 80’s – when my dad raised concerns about my brother’s progress at a parent’s evening – the head teacher told in ‘Children in this school aren’t working class enough to be dyslexic and they’re not middle class enough to autistic’.

You’ll see more of anything if you actually look for it and actually care about what you’re looking at.

Of course the things I mentioned have always been with us and improved diagnosis and longevity accounts for some of the rise but it certainly seems to me that all those things mentioned are also more frequent

We’ve had increasing amount of satellite dishes on houses over the same time frame. Why not blame them. Increased recording of auto-immune conditions correlates with the increasing number  re-runs of The Simpsons maybe.

In the 1940s the average westerner contained no man-made chemicals for the simple reason that those chemicals did not yet exist. In a recent survey conducted by the environmental organisation WWF, volunteers in 13 British cities had their blood tested for the presence of 77 man-made chemicals,

Int he 1940s people would have only one channel on their TV, if they even had a TV, now even the most basic free-view packages have more than 70 channels 🙂

Its well known that chemical irritants at low levels predispose you to cancer and other issues.  Its not a huge leap to consider they are also implicated in autoimmune diseases and developmental abnormalities

I have no scientific stuff to back this up that there is a link but its not farfetched.

CountZero

Funny, the ongoing large solar flares and CME’s haven’t precipitated any major power outages, even in North America, with its notoriously shonky power grid system.

Well the recent ones weren’t that big, they were something like 5x smaller than the Carrington event (the largest recorded CME in recent history approx 200 years ago, which caused telegraph poles etc to catch fire). However the Carrington event itself wasn’t especially large, in fact historically it was tiny in comparison to some in the last few thousand years.There was quite an interesting article on it here which popped up on my feed after the recent aurora.

Yeah don’t get too nostalgic. In the old days we were full of nasty pollutants; before that it was toxic coal smoke, and before that it was wood smoke. Living by candle or oil lamp light is really quite bad for you, and even completely un-modernised people breathe in a lot of wood smoke and I remember reading about studies showing that the amount of smoke breathed in by people in cool climates living in houses before chimneys were invented was a major health problem. The replica iron age houses at the St Fagan’s museum don’t even have a hole in the roof. It fills up the roof space so if you stand up your head is plunged into thick smoke.

the rise in autism

because they’re so much heavier and there’s more torque causing more wear – Tesla car tyres seem to last about 9000 miles

This isn’t true, but go discuss it on the EV thread 🙂

Heres how autism diagnosis worked in the 80’s – when my dad raised concerns about my brother’s progress at a parent’s evening – the head teacher told in ‘Children in this school aren’t working class enough to be dyslexic and they’re not middle class enough to autistic’.

What kinda of school did you go to…?!?

What kinda of school did you go to…?!?

Presumably a lower middle glass one or an upper working class one – or something in between the two. Actually my brother is dyslexic, but was only recognised as such after he left

When I was a kid autism was Rainman or that kid who could draw accurate cityscapes from memory. If you weren’t like that, it was your own problem.

I wonder if the plastic in my brain is going to be more or less of a problem than the asbestos in my Dad’s lungs?