Are microplastics from car tyres contributing to heart disease?

"Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and stress: microplastics.

“In a study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of physicians and researchers showed that surgical patients who had a build-up of micro and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a 2.1 times greater risk of nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke or death from any cause in the three years post surgery than those who did not.”

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-03-07/microplastics-may-be-risk-factor-for-cardiovascular-disease

The research is particularly noteworthy, given that one of the biggest sources of microplastic pollution is the synthetic rubber in car tyres: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112015017609398126

So it’s not just the sedentary lifestyles that car-dependent planning encourages that’s causing health issues.

And it’s not just exhaust fumes either.

There’s also the health impacts of microplastics, including from car tyres.

Worth noting as well that internal documents from the big oil companies show that they knew since the 1970s that recycling wasn’t going to solve the problem of plastic pollution. They promoted it anyway: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112064312364853769

#tyres #tyre #car #microplastic #microplastics #pollution #environment @fuck_cars #fuckcars

    • AJ Sadauskas@aus.social
      OP
      2·
      8 months ago

      @Simplicator @NarrativeBear Our whole economy is geared towards disposable consumerism.

      Yeah, we could make sturdy wooden chairs like the ones your grandma had at her dining table for 50-odd years.

      Or we could get new plastic chairs every five years or so from IKEA.

      The way things are set up, making 10 disposable chairs that last five years is far better for the economy than making one chair that lasts 50.

      There are plenty of things that could be user serviceable, repairable, repurposable or upgradable that aren’t because our economy is geared towards disposable consumerism.

      Even look at the economic measuring stick we use: GDP.

      If using economic activity as the measure of the health of your economy, then it’s far better to manufacture 10 chairs instead of one.

      But what if we were to use a different set of economic measurements? For example, the utility we gain from our goods, and many natural resources it takes to achieve that level of utility?

      By that measurement, manufacturing 10 chairs over 50 years instead of one for the same utility (sitting down during dinner) is a monumental waste.