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

    • mtp
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      fedilink
      18 months ago

      @Lats @matt @ajsadauskas @Etterra Try the United States; still alive and well.

      When I opened a bank account in Switzerland (moved there some time ago), I asked the agent if she had ever seen „one of these before“ (holding a cheque in the air). She was about my age, cocked her head to the side, and asked if she could get a colleague. The colleague was near retirement and told her what it was. Her reply to me: „I remember my grandparents talking about these!“