• emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Let’s say you keep dripping slightly muddy water into a bucket. Over time, the mud will settle and accumulate in the bucket, while the clearer water will overflow. Now suppose you cut a slit at the base of the bucket. Now the mud will flow out through it and the water in the bucket will become less muddy, even though new muddy water is still dripping in. Here the bucket is your bloodstream, the slightly muddy water is your food, and the mud is microplastic.

    • FiniteBanjo
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      9 months ago

      Blood doesn’t work like that, as it is constantly moving and being replaced. It is not a bucket.

      • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        The problem is that things like microplastics cannot be removed easily. (This is called bioaccumulation.) But if you bleed and lose some blood, the new blood will take time to accumulate.

        • FiniteBanjo
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          9 months ago

          If it flows out when the blood moves then it wouldn’t accumulate there in the first place. I’m not sure what you’re having difficulty with here.

          • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            It doesn’t flow out when the blood moves, because the bloodstream is a closed loop (more or less). It can only flow out if you lose blood.

            • FiniteBanjo
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              9 months ago

              The blood supplies to and through every single organ the vast majority of which are much more likely to catch and accumulate particles than the stream or vessels themselves.