Dear Subscriber,
Were the colorful items in this photo rocks on the beach, it might be a joy to behold. But these are not rocks. They are broken up pieces of plastic washed up.
I’ve been covering the horror of plastic pollution in the seas and atmosphere. Now comes more bad news.
Deadly microbes can attach to these petrochemical sourced particulates and find safety and passage deep into the oceans, where pathogens like this never existed before. Plastic has contributed to our lifestyle, but it will come at a huge price to our progeny and the planet. Our own now proven entry of plastic into our bodies may be a well hidden cause of mayhem unfolding upon humanity.
In the second article, you will see a medical report wherein plastic fibers were found to be inhaled from the mandated masks. Despite the unknowns of these non-degradable materials entering lungs, the authors still held to the party line of using masks. Likely billions of plastic fiber masks have been disseminated around the planet with the pandemic. I see hundreds on the streets and trails, all destined to break down in our streams and oceans – a possible catastrophic planet changing event.
N-95 masks do filter out some of the horrific plastic fibers in your air. However, the too are plastic and are not without inhalation risk. Worse, they can lower your oxygen intake. I don’t think we were made to make significant negative pressure in our chest to inhale. But that is the nature of that mask.
Medicine suffers just like politics. Outcome is based on the short term. We have allowed the destruction of our planet – spaceship earth. We are in the process of paying dearly politically/economically for short term re-election policies from government. And, we are paying more dearly with our bodies for the short sighted conventional medical approach to disease maintenance. I just posted a video on YouTube worth seeing - an occupational therapist who went on disability for disabling leg pain actually blamed on COVID.
It only took us 5 minutes to clear his disabling long-term pain. Strange as it seems, he will need a dentist!! His doctors hooked him on antidepressants and Neurontin – and he got no help. If you are well invested in Pharma, you’ll do well.
I do hope you will visit my YouTube channel. YouTube must be censoring me. I reached a million views more than 18 months ago, but since have had less than 100K. I must have a message from hundreds of patients that the platform does not want you to hear.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3116133/covid-19-masks-cause-plastic-fibre-inhalation-we-should-still This analysis from one of my chat groups:
“””Wearing a face mask has become a way of life during the coronavirus pandemic, but it can also cause us to inhale harmful plastic fibres, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.
The researchers tested a wide range of mask products and found that nearly all would increase the daily intake of microplastic fibres during wear because of their relatively fragile structure.
The fibres could cause some health problems, but this possibility was dwarfed by their benefits during the pandemic and should not prompt people to stop wearing them, according to the researchers.
“It is a minor problem compared with protecting humans from Covid-19,” said the team from the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials on Wednesday.
Scientists first discovered microplastics in the lung tissue of some patients who died of lung cancer in the 1990s, and many other studies have since highlighted the potential damage to health caused by such materials.
Plastic degrades slowly, so once in the lungs it tends to stay there and build up in volume. Some studies have found that the immune system can attack these foreign objects, causing prolonged inflammation that can lead to diseases such as cancer.
Face masks help prevent airborne transmission of the coronavirus using a combination of fabrics. The commonly used surgical masks, for instance, have three layers of melt-blown textiles made of polypropylene.
Some people also use home-made cotton masks or fashion masks made of organic polymer, which offer less protection but greater comfort for everyday use.
The Institute of Hydrobiology researchers in Wuhan counted the plastic fibres shed by masks over a month, using a laboratory device that simulated human breathing. They found that masks containing activated carbon produced the highest number of fibres, at nearly 4,000.
Those were followed by surgical masks, cotton masks, fashion masks and N95 masks, the brands of which were not specified in the study. Some of the fibres were several millimetres long, considerably larger than typical particles floating in the air.
There were already plenty of microplastics in human living environments. About a third of the floating particles in the atmosphere are plastic, according to some studies. They could come from almost anywhere, from the clothes people wear to farms using plastic membrane.
Debate over face masks ends: Hong Kong was right all along
5 Apr 2020
Masks can filter air pollutants to varying extents, but with the exception of N95s, all produce more microplastic fibres than they filter, according to the new Chinese study.
The N95 respirator studied released only about half of the quantity of microplastics of a surgical mask. N95s are designed to filter at least 95 per cent of airborne particles. Intended mainly for medical or industrial use, they are made to higher standards with a stronger structure.
But wearing an N95 for a long time could cause fatigue because of oxygen shortage, it has been warned, and in many countries these masks were reserved for use by frontline health workers.
The institute’s study also found that reused masks produced more loosened fibres. The worst structural damage was observed after applying alcohol.
Western and Asian habits still differ, but the coronavirus pandemic is normalising mask-wearing
Cleaning masks by exposing them to ultraviolet light caused the smallest amount of loosening, while washing a mask gently without soap could cause some damage but not much, the researchers found.
The exact health side-effects caused by broken-off fibres is unclear, so although people should be informed of the inhalation risk they should continue to wear masks, the researchers said.
Used masks have also added to litter and recent studies have warned of their contribution to water pollution, potentially adding to consumption of harmful plastics by humans and animals.”””
To Your Excellent Health!
Robert Jay Rowen, MD
I read your columns for a number years in Second Opinion until you left that publication. I didn't know until someone put a link to one of your substack columns that you were publishing. The irony about masks is that no quality study has proven that they do anything to prevent the spread of Covid-19, so the justification for using them in that article is built on a false premise.
https://thebusinessdownload.com/could-okra-be-the-key-to-eliminating-micro-plastics/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=tbdpassion05&utm_content=okramicroplastics&fbclid=IwAR1lZYy5Yc8sL8rGn_PUlqS7ykwGctz6mXBl7xGMk5F33eC6CB5ixBiw8JY