Humans so regularly consume toxic chemicals that few people rarely notice.
On Tuesday, the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of New Mexico published a study showing how much plastic we are consuming. It examined 62 different placentas and was shocked to discover that all of them, without fail, contained various microplastics.
The amounts of microplastics in these placentas ranged from 6.5 to 790 micrograms per gram of human tissue, which the researchers determined were enough to be labeled toxic hazards for the human body.
The research team suspected this alarming level of plastic in the human body was due to global water pollution. Only 5% of recycled materials are actually recycled. The other 95% gets disposed of, who knows where.
The team also worries this indicates that nearly all of humanity may be consuming plastic now. Plastic toxicity in the human body is linked to dementia, insulin resistance, decreased reproductive health, cancer, and weight gain.
On Feb. 29, another study was published, this time by the Lancet. After an analysis of obesity studies across the globe, it concluded over 1 billion people, or an eighth of the world’s population, were over the obesity line in 2022. Forty-three percent of adults were overweight.
The World Health Organization provided guidelines suggesting that misleading or faulty nutrition labels and the advertising of unhealthy processed foods are largely to blame.
This poses an important question: What is being put in our food? Most major crops are genetically modified organisms now. Such produce is eaten by livestock and other animals. We, in turn, eat all of the above. Are we at risk of something?
There have not been enough studies done on the long-term effects of GMOs on the human body. An equal amount of those that do exist support either conclusion. However, the lack of scientific consensus is enough reason to warrant concern and caution.
Most farmers apply heavy amounts of pesticides to their crops. Many pesticide chemicals have been linked to obesity in children from birth if their mothers consumed lots of them, according to several studies.
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Obesity is more often fatal than not. New research shows that extreme obesity increases the likelihood of premature death anywhere from 22% to 90%. If an eighth of all humanity is over the obesity line, I fear for its future.
Recycling needs to start being taken seriously. Further research needs to be done into the artificial chemicals and processes we use to optimize food production before everything we eat fattens us to death.
Parker Miller is a 2024 Washington Examiner winter fellow.
