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Comment by jrmg | Hacker News Reader

It’s important to keep health articles like this in context.

Sure, try to mimimize risk, but if you’re feeling too anxious remember that human beings are, currently, living longer, healthier lives than they ever have.

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Also, given what we know about human physiology, if you want to live longer and healthier, the biggest ROI is not on changing your cookware, but on eating healthy foods and getting regular cardiovascular exercise.

Eat some vegetables and go for a run or a bike ride. We know what works for improving health.

Not microwaving plastic is an insanely easy lifestyle adjustment that virtually anyone can do starting immediately without effort. Changing diet or exercising may be much more impactful, but they require significant time and effort - gargantuan amounts compared to just changing from plastic to glass lunch boxes.

> Not microwaving plastic is an insanely easy lifestyle adjustment that virtually anyone can do starting immediately without effort.

I don't think anyone is arguing that it is futile to try to microwave less or to do so in ceramic or glassware - it is just not qualified if that would have any meaningful personal health impact whatsoever.

> Changing diet or exercising may be much more impactful, but they require significant time and effort - gargantuan amounts compared to just changing from plastic to glass lunch boxes.

I tend to make changes because they will be impactful, even if such changes require additional effort.

An awful lot of pre-packaged meals designed to be heated in the microwave come in (and sometimes, be eaten from) plastic trays. They couldn't really come another way. You can say people shouldn't use those but if that is their lifestyle beacause they don't have time to prepare meals then you lost the "insanely easy" argument.

Just put the frozen stuff into a bowl or plate and microwave it. That's what I used to do and it's insanely easy.

And I am sure a future study might also say : one risk factor for healthy and long life is reading about various health risks and worrying about them all the time :)

Warning: Reading comprehension is known to the State of California to increase the risk of cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm?

> living longer, healthier lives than they ever have.

This is not true in America. Life expectancy has dropped significantly after COVID and several types of cancer are on the rise (notably, pancreatic and liver). Americans are more obese than ever with significant all-cause mortality and lifestyle impacts.

While the impact of COVID may eventually even out, it is just not the case that health and life expectancy is monotonically increasing.

People are living longer, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know has at least one chronic health issue, and many have multiple. And medical science’s answer to most chronic issues is “We don’t know what causes it or how to help you. Come back if you get a disease I can see in a microscope.”

Netherlands: besides one friend of a friend with an autoimmune disease, I'm not aware of chronic health issues in anyone else under 70 years old. Unless you count things like obesity, autism, or often having a headache at the onset of menstruation. Only among my grandparents (>70yo by now), it's indeed common to have something like a wound that doesn't heal or memory issues.

Maybe my value is under the statistical average, but "almost everyone I know"? That sounds very odd as well. Do you know of a genetic-related issue in the family, or do you live in a place where vaccinations are not available or mistrusted or so?

Yeah exactly. I probably have some form of rheumatism and fertility issues. Since forever I have avoided my country’s traditional bread based lunch and instead microwaved leftovers in plastic containers. I feel bad about that. I also heated baby formula in plastic bottles. No bpa but it turns out: still bad.

People have more chronic issues because they are living longer.

To follow that: Genetic changes that have a short term advantage & a long term disadvantage, it's going to be selected for. Evolution stops caring as soon as you've got your child to child bearing age.

Maybe. But the other day I also read a news article about a research that says cancer rates (edit: of people below 60 years old) have risen 80% in the past 30 years, and are expected to rise another 31% by 2030. One suspected cause is the consumption of processed food, which contains additives such as preservatives that are harmful long-term. Another possible reason is microplastic accumulation.

https://www.nu.nl/gezondheid/6279697/aantal-kankergevallen-w...

https://bmjoncology.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000049

Everyone will get cancer if they live long enough. So as human lifespans increase, rates of cancer increase with it. It's as simple as that.

The article was about cancer rates in people under 50.

Pesticide/herbicide exposure is also plausible, either via direct mechanisms or by disruption of gut microbiota (e.g. glyphosate and the shikimate pathway). It seems likely that these and other factors could interact, too.

I always wonder about whether such comparisons take into account the 50% increase in global population between 1990 and 2019. This BMJ charts do not appear to do so.

It's about cancer rates in people under 50, so...

This is a terrible piece of ignore-the-facts advice. The emerging facts about the health impacts from plastics are significant and irreversible. Anxiety is a healthy human response to a threat.

Are they, really? With the obesity epidemic, to mention one of the modern health issues?

> if you’re feeling too anxious remember that human beings are, currently, living longer, healthier lives than they ever have.

Not in the US, where life expectancy is plunging.

‘Plummeting’

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=us+life+expectancy

Stay away from fentanyl and you'll avoid the #1 cause of life expectancy "plunging" in the US.

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