Microplastics, Public Health Myth or Menace - Ian Mudway

Microplastics - tiny plastic particles less than 5mm long - were first identified in the ocean but are now known to be ubiquitous throughout the environment, within soil, air food and water. Recently, microplastics have been detected in human blood, placenta, and other tissues (liver, lung, colon) raising concerns about potential adverse health effects.
This lecture reviews the science on microplastics and whether we should be concerned about them, compared with other known environmental hazards.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Ian Mudway on 25 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Ian is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health.
He is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at Imperial, a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health; MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma and the NIHR-PHE Health Protection Research Units in Environmental Exposures and Health and Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards.
www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/dr...
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/m...
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[@debbielondon1809]

An extraordinary lecture. A privilege to be able to access this. Thank you to every one involved.

[@wayne00k]

Oh - just a note - Gresham lectures are now monetized. Wasn't so bad a week ago - but this presentation was interrupted by 5 long commercials within the first 18 minutes here in the USA. Worse was one commercial would lead to another unless I intervened. I hope that this isn't a trend or permanent because these lectures are quite valuable to me and have been a part of my daily routine for the past 4 + years

[@charlibravo371]

Try KZbin premium. For the cost of a meal a month you can watch unlimited videos and never ever see an ad. It's worth it for me since I listen to a lot of podcasts and lectures and I stead of paying Spotify I just have one KZbin premium subscription.

[@samuelelsby1800]

A lecture is ALWAYS so much better when it’s not read from a script.

[@emarsk77]

What an excellent lecture. It also contains a depressing truth: "they have capacity and nothing to do with it. So they have to innovate […] into the only market which is going to be able to replace that. And that's consumer products." This is the reason why we are cruising at full speed into a disaster: we are - as a society, and many of us as individuals as well - inescapably driven by greed. Not well-being. Not quality of life. And most certainly not long-term altruism.

[@aubreypressley1450]

It will be sad for humanity to end, or brush up against extinction, all because those in power wished to chase profit. Profit over the environment. Profit over people. Profit over the future.

[@tazboy1934]

That's why atheism shud go...we need religion and belief in God​@@aubreypressley1450

[@GrahamCLester]

This is exactly the sort of information that we all need if we are going to tackle pollution and waste effectively.

[@simonpenny2564]

Thankyou! This lecture is exemplary of balanced argument informed by solid science. Sadly less common than it should be.

[@Edo9River]

I applaud your presentation of the reality of our situation now. The public includes the urban poor. And the waste location of waste products

[@iZenZation]

Very informative, thank you!

[@skeletalbassman1028]

Much needed lecture!!!

[@thatguyswavomeer]

Plastic recycling is counter-effective, it produces even more harmful waste than it was supposed to prevent. It is also a very convenient excuse for producers to shift responsibility for handling the plastic packaging on consumers - so that it is their business decision to use it (and their profit) but it is us, the buyers who have to take care of the outcome, at our own cost.

[@itsmegfc1743]

I’d like to see the data that shows even more harmful waste is produced from recycling plastics. If there is data showing this I’d hazard a guess that it would be applicable to all recycling. This does not make sense to me. And I think it’s consumers of plastic packaging that litter it, so it seems quite right that the consumer takes at least some of the pain. The one take from this we should all be thinking about is waste (all waste) and how we deal with it and minimise it. That requires a multi faceted approach. And recycling will be part of that approach.

[@logo2462]

Seems like the search for microplastics in tissue is well motivated. While there is hype and hysteria about the search that raises suspicions, other institutions will keep those suspicions in check by quickly trying to reproduce and double check any findings. Perhaps there are more interesting and concerning questions to be discussed in the area of environmental health, but that is a question of awareness campaigns and political contributions.

[@angelafloodgate4437]

8:17 I’m no biologist but I was told that the digestive system belongs to the outward milieu. Plastics have to be very small (chemical level) to be taken up into the bloodstream.

[@mollyjones3223]

My brother was an engineer involved in the design and testing of the plastic parts of cars. He and five other men at the same factory had esophageal cencer before age 60.

[@joewebster903]

Well done and balanced however FYI there have been solutions to these problems for many years but the disruptive solutions have been suppressed by those who would continue to benefit greeting from the status of increasing waste and now political pressure and a global paradigm shift is choking political,and the giants of industry who perpetuate the problem and pay the salaries of these politicians The global industry of manufactures have changed their internal policies over the last 25 years and these changes are the root to our problem There are many solutions!!

[@Neilhuny]

An extraordinary lecture - and rather depressing! We humans aren't great at looking after our world, our environment

[@guitarsandsuchetc]

The water in the plastic water bottle taste horrible. No wonder all ages would drink sugary drinks.

[@neetfreek9921]

Soda cans have plastic linings inside them

[@samimakinen4250]

Cicartte filer every inhale exhale, plastic..... maybe i quit smoking

[@Edo9River]

I would say that in ten years there will NOT be a reduction in any of the data 😢😢.ALL the trends are estimated no but in ten years the effects will be measurable. And in ten years all the gaps of data will be filled in. In the future the number of urban poor will increase in exposure and and in concentration this is coming reliably by any projection 😮😮😮😮😮

[@angelafloodgate4437]

1:01:37 it’s to late already I’m afraid

[@NegarRiahi]

Composite materials

[@vishwa77770]

Wonderful session Congratulations Lan

[@cliveb9771]

In the chart of “man-made” material compared to biomass one of the biggest contributors is aggregate. It is stretch to call this man-made in the same way plastics are - it is mostly gravel and crushed rock which was there anyway irrespective of man with some material recycled from other categories such as concrete and bricks. It is a bit sensationalist to report it in that way simply to get close to the biomass number.

[@JH-pt6ih]

Not even four minutes in and he's tossing out a red herring - the fact that most of the plastic manufactured is in landfills and not floating in the ocean or littering the land. So what? It's irrelevant; it's the stuff that isn't discarded properly that is the problem. I'm starting to wonder about Gresham - they have a video of a guy talking about C0^2 and he shows a satellite video he claims shows an enormous release of CO^2 into the atmosphere during winter as the stuff that falls in autumn decomposes. But there are two problems with it - one, dead vegetation doesn't rapidly decompose in the cold of winter, it remains under the snow and starts to decay in the spring with warmer temperatures and increased water. You don't see a massive increase in CO^2 during this time because it is offset by the new growth absorbing - almost like it's a cycle! The second problem is that the satellite imagery is from NASA and NASA describes the increase in C0^2 coming from increased usage of heating fuel and related winter fuel use increase (like driving more because it's too cold to walk, etc.). Something weird starting to go on at Gresham.

[@cliveb9771]

@@anthonyrozewski2486I’m educated enough to know the difference between aggregate (which is what my comment was about) and concrete which apparently you seem to think it was about.

[@johnclements6614]

Aggregate weathers which can lead to acidification of rivers and other things. It depends on the chemical composition of the rock. By reducing the native rock to gravel we are exposing a much larger surface area to the air and water so greatly increasing the rate of weathering. In the UK there is a problem with run off with associated with mining. look up acid rock drainage. if those same rocks are used for embankment construction they will behave in a similar manner to mine tips with the weathering depending effected by the grading. I would assume that the mine waste would have a larger number of fine partials so would be more reactive if that's the case. Fine particles are not wanted in construction of embankments etc, I assume they would be used as fillers.

[@terenceiutzi4003]

Every article that I have found says the microplastics that have been found have been cellulose. That is that important plant fiber that none of us get enough of! And remember that anything that gets into our book stream has to be small enough to move through the walls of our small intestines. That means it is definitely small enough to move back through the walls of our colon carrying cholesterol with it!

[@davidpayant8684]

I don’t care whether plastics hurt me. Big plastics manufacturers should not be allowed to fill our environment and our landfills with plastic. I did not consent to a massive experiment on the human race. If you make a product you should pay for it’s disposal. So this lecture will make plastic manufacturers happy but ignores real issue. 🐝🐝

[@sgordon8123]

Can they affect your gender?

[@roshiniravi3790]

Yes it creates estrogenic effect in body once it enters our blood stream

[@hooray4pizzaday451]

Hasn't been proven yet, but we do know plastics alter hormones.

[@meb3369]

Lol

[@Edo9River]

A huge amount of Japanese farmland is cultivated next to highways and under highways. AND NO ONE WHO IS STUDYING IT, IS PERMITTED TO BE ON TV

[@mrb239]

I cross the road and get a jay walking ticket... Who is going to get punished for this? Oh we cant, its a corporatation, no accountability

[@williampatrickfagan7590]

I'm very conscious of micro plastic in cleaning materials. These cannot be filtered out

[@bitTorrenter]

Could you elaborate?

[@JamesWisdom-fc5jy]

Uh dur..I wonder.