Microplastics, Public Health Myth or Menace - Ian Mudway

Sdílet
Vložit
  • čas přidán 26. 09. 2023
  • 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...
    Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support/
    Website: gresham.ac.uk
    Twitter: / greshamcollege
    Facebook: / greshamcollege
    Instagram: / greshamcollege

Komentáře • 47

  • @debbielondon1809
    @debbielondon1809 Před 2 měsíci +4

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

  • @wayne00k
    @wayne00k Před 9 měsíci +13

    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
      @charlibravo371 Před 5 měsíci

      Try CZcams 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 CZcams premium subscription.

  • @samuelelsby1800
    @samuelelsby1800 Před 9 měsíci +7

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

  • @emarsk77
    @emarsk77 Před 8 měsíci +8

    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
      @aubreypressley1450 Před 3 měsíci

      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
      @tazboy1934 Před měsícem

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

  • @GrahamCLester
    @GrahamCLester Před 24 dny +2

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

  • @iZenZation
    @iZenZation Před 4 dny +1

    Very informative, thank you!

  • @thatguyswavomeer
    @thatguyswavomeer Před 8 měsíci +22

    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
      @itsmegfc1743 Před 6 měsíci +3

      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.

  • @Edo9River
    @Edo9River Před 8 měsíci +5

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

  • @erizmo4468
    @erizmo4468 Před dnem +1

    I know that there is less information on nano plastics, but the main concern on human health comes from nano plastics because of their ability to breach any barrier so I wonder how big of an issue this is🤔

  • @simonpenny2564
    @simonpenny2564 Před 15 dny

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

  • @mollyjones3223
    @mollyjones3223 Před 9 měsíci +8

    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.

  • @skeletalbassman1028
    @skeletalbassman1028 Před 9 měsíci +3

    Much needed lecture!!!

  • @guitarsandsuchetc
    @guitarsandsuchetc Před 5 měsíci +4

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

    • @neetfreek9921
      @neetfreek9921 Před 4 měsíci +1

      Soda cans have plastic linings inside them

  • @logo2462
    @logo2462 Před 9 měsíci +3

    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
    @angelafloodgate4437 Před 4 měsíci

    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.

  • @samimakinen4250
    @samimakinen4250 Před 3 měsíci +2

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

  • @joewebster903
    @joewebster903 Před 7 měsíci +1

    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
    @Neilhuny Před 8 měsíci

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

  • @Edo9River
    @Edo9River Před 8 měsíci +1

    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
    @angelafloodgate4437 Před 4 měsíci +1

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

  • @NegarRiahi
    @NegarRiahi Před 5 měsíci

    Composite materials

  • @cliveb9771
    @cliveb9771 Před 9 měsíci +3

    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
      @JH-pt6ih Před 9 měsíci +2

      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
      @cliveb9771 Před 7 měsíci

      @@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
      @johnclements6614 Před 4 měsíci

      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.

  • @vishwa77770
    @vishwa77770 Před 8 měsíci

    Wonderful session Congratulations Lan

  • @terenceiutzi4003
    @terenceiutzi4003 Před 5 měsíci

    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
    @davidpayant8684 Před 8 měsíci +4

    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. 🐝🐝

  • @Edo9River
    @Edo9River Před 8 měsíci +2

    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

  • @sgordon8123
    @sgordon8123 Před 8 měsíci +4

    Can they affect your gender?

    • @roshiniravi3790
      @roshiniravi3790 Před 4 měsíci +3

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

    • @hooray4pizzaday451
      @hooray4pizzaday451 Před 3 měsíci

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

    • @meb3369
      @meb3369 Před 3 měsíci

      Lol

  • @mrb239
    @mrb239 Před 4 měsíci

    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
    @williampatrickfagan7590 Před 9 měsíci

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

  • @JamesWisdom-fc5jy
    @JamesWisdom-fc5jy Před 3 měsíci

    Uh dur..I wonder.