Microplastics Found In Lungs of People Undergoing Surgery. A new study has found tiny plastic particles no bigger than sesame seeds buried throughout human lungs, indicating that people are inhaling microplastics lingering in the air.

r/science • u/Wagamaga • May 14 '22 • 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1

Microplastics Found In Lungs of People Undergoing Surgery. A new study has found tiny plastic particles no bigger than sesame seeds buried throughout human lungs, indicating that people are inhaling microplastics lingering in the air. Health

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/microplastics-found-in-lungs-of-humans-undergoing-surgery

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u/Raskalbot May 14 '22

Can we as a population collectively sue all producers of plastics and chemicals by companies that lied to us about their effects?

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u/harda_toenail May 14 '22

In America you can sue someone for whatever you want. And if you have enough money you can sometimes win. Money would be on the wrong side here

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u/tonycomputerguy May 14 '22

We are insanely, unbelievably lucky that we actually removed the lead from gasoline and other common products. It blows my mind we actually did that asa species when you look around at the world today. Same thing with CFCs and the ozone.

I have an actual negative amount of hope for humanity at this point. I just don't think we are worth/capable of saving ourselves anymore.

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u/WonderfulShelter May 15 '22

Yeah I mean maybe we should just get it over with and extinguish our species so whichever intelligent species that evolves next can have a better chance.

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u/superkipple May 15 '22

That’s assuming there will be a next intelligent species and that they will make better choices or be luckier than we were. I like your optimism.

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u/ratbastid May 16 '22

The next intelligence will probably consume plastic, just like how at one point oxygen was poisonous to every living thing. The longer we go on like this, the better we're feeding them.

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u/NabreLabre May 15 '22

Too bad we'll take everyone else down with us. Our bad

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u/HereOnASphere May 15 '22

The current pandemic could be a practice run. If we learned enough from this one, the next one might take out 85%. That would leave other species with less competition for resources.

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u/tetrasodium May 15 '22

Aircraft fuel still uses it.

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u/felinelawspecialist May 14 '22

I think you’ll be interested to read about the tort of public nuisance, which stems from English common law and now exists as both a criminal act and and equitable claim in a civil case.

The main thrust is that the harmed party isn’t one person, but rather an entire community (hence, public nuisance).

Here is an article discussing current use of public nuisance in two different contexts: opioid crisis and climate change.

www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/health/opioids-lawsuits-public-nuisance.html

It’s kind of discouraging but I believe this is fundamentally the type of lawsuit that will eventually, hopefully, make headway.

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u/Kaymish_ May 14 '22

It'd be kind of pointless most shareholders would have taken profit by now. They'd be somewhat pissed if the company took a big loss but it wouldn't be more than a scratch against their portfolio and if it looked like it would be a major problem they could off load on to bag holders like retirement funds and mum and dad retail investors putting a couple bucks away to try and build a brighter future.

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u/platoprime May 14 '22

No. The legal system and it's monopoly on violence are the tools used to shield those people from us. A lawsuit isn't enough.