Sources- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2025.118939 j_okayyy on TT Chemicals like phthalates, bisphenols, and PFAS hitch a ride into the human body through our food, water, and air. Once inside, these tiny microplastics can act as endocrine disruptors that mimic or interfere with our natural hormone signals. Because human reproduction relies on a highly delicate balance of hormones like estrogen and testosterone, even minor interferences can theoretically throw the entire system off balance. Current research provides compelling evidence that this interference is already happening. Scientists have detected microplastics in human placentas and testes, and studies show strong correlations between high chemical levels and declining sperm quality or reduced ovarian reserve. However, the medical community emphasizes that this requires significant further investigation. Because humans are continuously exposed to a massive cocktail of different chemicals and lifestyle factors simultaneously, it is incredibly difficult to isolate microplastics as the sole, definitive cause of specific reproductive issues in a clinical setting. #microplastics #netflix #fertility
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What pisses me off is that instead of controlling 2 million companies worldwide, we are trying to control 7 billion consumers that most of the time don't have access to alternatives. Nonsense
Just waiting for some bacteria to start eating plastic instead of whatever they eat normally
this is why hemp plastic and hemp-based clothing scares plastic and clothing industries so much. anything that is good for the environment is detrimental to corporate shareholders
We need to be outraged! Companies shouldn't be able to get away with the effects of microplastics!
I've spent years slowly replacing all of our home fabrics to linen, wool, 100% organic cotton, Etc. The cost alone to replace your bed sheets with 100% natural organic linen is insane!
New birth control method just dropped
The most effective way would be creating laws to "keep the companies in check", in my opinion. As a consumer I guess one thing could be avoiding disposable products, they are quite polluting and very often made of plastic.
with a sample size of six? yeah, random chance is still too high for me to take all these drastic measures. if you really wanna be safe, use a metal water bottle and avoid storing food in plastic containers. that's the best (and most realistic for most) way to reduce microplastics. i'm not throwing away the clothes i still use so they can just go in a landfill.
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I swear I JUST saw something saying that they discovered that the disposable gloves scientists wore during their microplastics studies may have contaminated the study resulting in them MASSIVELY overestimating how much microplastic is actually present in us.
It should be looked into but THERE'S TONS OF DIFFERENT ASPECTS FOR INFERTILITY 💀
I'm gonna start eating my plastic forks and plates, just in case
I don’t know, don’t you think it’s odd that 90 days was enough for their bodies to expel just enough of the microplastics, the same microplastics that are said to accumulate in one’s organs and can potentially stay there for years, the microplastics that are said to cause fertility issues, for them to succeed in getting pregnant? I'm not denying the validity of microplastics being able to cause fertility issues. I'm denying the validity of the show
Some thoughts: — 6 is a SILLY level of sample size — no control group (I think?) — did not control for placebo — did not control for the SIGNIFICANT lifestyle changes that would have happened as a result of uprooting all your routines and products to accommodate being plastic free While plastic definitely has an effect on us we don’t yet understand, this should not be treated as science and it feels irresponsible of Netflix to present it as such. I think it’s good to replace unnecessary plastic in your life for many reasons, but I think the bit about lifestyle changes changes has far more potential to make positive change than plastic reduction, so if you’re looking to start living healthier, start there, where there is so much science and guaranteed good to be had. Also I think it’s important to note that vilifying plastic shifts so much blame and causes so much harm to the disability community, who rely on these products to stay alive. The plastics conversation is important to have, but has to come with so much care and nuance
I study microplastic exposure in birds, and it is actually insane how completely ubiquitous they are 😭 even aside from what I’m actually finding from field samples, protocols for extracting and staining them are so hard to develop because it is nearly impossible to eliminate microplastic contamination. Even wearing clothes that are 100% cotton, rinsing things several times with vacuum filtered water, covering absolutely everything with foil until they’re needed, only using filtered water for every step that requires water, running an air purifier, and using a clean hood meant to prevent DNA contamination doesn’t get rid of everything. Dealing with MP contamination is so much harder than dealing with DNA contamination because at least you can _kill_ DNA. With the amount of MPs I’m finding in these nestling birds, most of which don’t directly interact with plastics, and even just in blanks, I can’t even begin to fathom how much humans are exposed to MPs on a day to day basis when SO MUCH of what we directly interact with contains plastic. Even if we try to limit our personal exposure to microplastics, it’s really up to corporations distributing plastic products to make any sort of real difference, because as long as plastic exists, microplastics will be absolutely everywhere.
As someone who used to work in retail it’s genuinely so crazy how much dust ( microplastic ) from all the clothing would spread around the air. You don’t see it but after every shift I’d clean all the shelves and there would literally be sooo much dust particles on everything. You are constantly breathing in microplastics. It’s really bad
I developed an allergic reaction to all tea, including tea like peppermint and ginger. I reasoned at the time that I didn’t have these reactions when I normally ate peppermint or ginger, so there must be something else in with the tea that made me vomit about 3 minutes after finishing a cup. Turns out, the FDA doesn’t regulate microplastics inside teabags/glue/strung compinents, and a lot of tea companies have pesticides and even THE DUST OF TEA LEAVES FROM THE FACTORY FLOORS in their teabag. Some really easy/ cheaper ways to reduce plastic intake: switch to higher quality loose leaf tea. Use coffee makers like French press that don’t have plastic steeping in the hot water. Use wooden cutting boards instead of plastic to prevent cutting microplastics into your food. If you have a child with Asperger’s, cook with cast iron instead of aluminum cookware since people with Asperger’s have a noticeably higher retention of heavy metals. Consider switching out a blanket or two. Especiallly if you got old grandma quilts that could be getting loved. Don’t use magic eraser to clean things since it leaves microplastics on all of the surfaces it touches (if you have littles and you’re cleaning crayon off the wall with this, they might touch that surface and stick their hand in their mouth, so keep that in mind. So yea ^^ long but maybe helpful for minor things
We need to go back to glass bottles, they are recyclable!
Remember people: TV can do and say whatever it wants, there's not really misinformation laws like that. So this "documentary" could just say whatever they want it to say and choose to only show you the positively biased results along with framing to influence your opinion and fearmonger. Ancient aliens is a documentary in the same credibility that this is a documentary - they can say and write the narrative to be literally whatever they want, pay whatever actor to speak as a "specialist", quote any "study".. but the pyramids were not built by aliens, and microplastics are something we do not know enough about yet to say yes or no comcretely on if theyre detrimental. We do not have substantial studies on microplastics, I must reiterate this. If someone says they know for sure that they cause problems and can harm you, they are lying to your face to scare you. We simply dont have any studies that have been conducted over a long enough period of time to have valid "long term impact" results because plastic wasnt this widely used for long enough for the studies to even have been conducted! Not to mention, fertility is complicated. 2 perfectly healthy people can never conceive in their whole fertile lives, they are simply incompatible. There is so much about genes and compatibility that we just do not know. Even our reproductive process we are learning new things about every day, we only recently even found out eggs are selective towards sperm (may eject non preferred swimmers even if they make it first) and not passive in the fertilization process. Just in the past couple years. Fertility issues have existed as long as time. Victorian era couples with no plastic in existance still had struggles with fertility or pregnancy viability/miscarriages. Its something that just happens. Near 1/4 of all pregnancies end in miscarriage and even more miscarry before the mother even knows she is pregnant, showing up as what she would assume is her period. Its just the way things are. It can have absolutely NOTHING to do with your clothes or your kitchen spoon or your hairbrush. Sometimes life is just unfair and thats how it is. All in all, please just think for yourself and dont trust every "documentary" on netflix to be fully educational and not have any sort of agenda or have no flaws. A lot of these documentaries are twisted truths made to look good by arranging things in a certain way and it is damaging when you simply believe that at face value instead of seeing it for what it is made to be: entertainment. Its made to be interesting and exciting, not the actual fact of the matter that isnt as cool. The real answer isnt a conspiracy, its just that we dont know. And we havent been able to prove that it causes significant harm. But thats not going to make people watch your documentary. So... yknow.
Unfortunately it can be expensive to switch all items that way.