Heart disease deaths worldwide linked to chemical widely used in plastics

Scale and Persistence of Plastic Pollution

• Commenters liken plastics to asbestos but far less containable: plastics already permeate air, water, soil, and bodies.
• Some note fungi and other organisms are evolving to digest plastics, but others stress this may worsen contamination up the food chain and produce unknown ecological side effects.
• There’s concern the biosphere may be approaching “saturation” with plastic-derived chemicals, with little clarity on long‑term steady-state levels.

Recycling, Removal, and Policy

• Strong skepticism that current plastic “recycling” is real or net beneficial; several call it a scam that mainly exports waste.
• Proposed solutions focus on source reduction (using plastic only when necessary) rather than cleanup, which is seen as technologically and logistically infeasible at scale.
• Ideas like burying or filtering plastics are criticized as unrealistic given global dispersion and the water cycle.

Health Risks of DEHP and Other Plasticizers

• DEHP’s harms have been known for decades; some say Western regulation has reduced exposure via changes in toys, bottles, and furniture.
• Others point out DEHP is still widely used in flexible PVC (including medical tubing) and in packaging, especially in developing countries.
• Several emphasize that “linked” does not imply clear causation and question the plausibility of the study’s large death estimate.

Regulation, Substitution, and Legal Constraints

• Discussion of BPA-free marketing highlights “whack‑a‑mole” substitution (BPF, BPS, etc.) that may be equally harmful.
• There is frustration with slow, chemical‑by‑chemical regulation and concern that recent US court decisions limiting agency discretion will make broad, flexible regulation harder.
• Some argue for pre‑market safety testing and stricter approval processes for novel chemicals.

Fertility, Autism, and Other Health Debates

• One thread speculates that plasticizers contribute to falling sperm quality and autism; others call evidence mixed or inconclusive, and note confounders like diagnostic changes and older parent age.
• There is disagreement over whether sperm counts are clearly declining and whether fertility issues are primarily environmental or social.

Individual Mitigation and Everyday Trade‑offs

• Personal strategies include favoring hard plastics, glass, stainless steel, and certain can linings; avoiding heating plastics; and scrutinizing packaging.
• Some tools (food databases, proposed fiber supplements) aim to reduce ingestion, but posters note it’s nearly impossible to avoid exposure entirely.
• Meat and dairy are flagged as significant exposure routes and as environmentally problematic, though high‑protein diets for bodybuilding and performance remain defended.