Just 5 days after we published our most recent piece, “A Dash of Coke or Pepsi with Your Plastic”, The Guardian published: Microplastics Discovery in Penises Raises Erectile Dysfunction Questions. Our article described some of the serious health concerns associated with drinking plastic particles into our bodies from beverages in plastic bottles. But we seem to be the only media outlet (financial or otherwise) to point out that Coca Cola Co and PepsiCo sell their beverages in a huge share of the plastic bottles sold to consumers, which now appear to be the largest source of micro and nano plastics humans ingest into their bodies. The report we focused our last article on was able to, for the first time, identify and count “nano” plastic particles, which are smaller than the “micro” plastics that researchers had previously discovered at very high levels in the water inside of plastic bottles. Plastic nano particles are likely more dangerous than micro particles as they can more easily pass into the blood through the human digestion system and infiltrate our bodies at the cellular level. One liter of water from a plastic bottle contained 240,000 plastic particles!
In this new report, researchers from the University of Miami found microplastics in the penises of 4 of 5 patients they tested who suffer from erectile dysfunction. This isn’t a big sample but, as stated in the report:
“We found that microplastics were present in the smooth muscle of the penis. All we know is that they are not supposed to be there, and we suspect that it could lead to smooth muscle dysfunction.”
The discovery of microplastics in the penis muscles follows the recent discovery of microplastics in the testes and semen in 23 of 23 men tested. Sperm counts for men living in Western countries have declined in the last 40 years by 52%. Yes, you read that right. The researchers at the University of New Mexico hypothesize links between the presence of microplastics in testes and sperm and the disturbing decline in sperm count.
We are not aware of any efforts by Coke or Pepsi to assure the public that we are safe from ingesting plastic particles into our bodies when drinking their beverages from plastic bottles. (We noted in our prior article that their aluminum cans are all lined with the plastic building block BPA.) And we described how media and other organizations are heavily reliant on Coca Cola Co and PepsiCo advertising and don’t want to get sideways with them. We are an independent, self-funded organization and don’t suffer from those kinds of conflicts. But you don’t need to be a brain surgeon to appreciate that a plastic bottle problem could be a big problem for Coke and Pepsi investors (like Warren Buffett) and for present Coke and Pepsi customers who want to live long and healthy lives.
We further expect these companies are ahead of the curve examining and researching the risks of plastic particles in their products. The cigarette companies knew decades before the public of the health impacts of smoking. The oil/gas companies knew well before the public that fossil fuels would cause climate change. And most recently Dupont and other big chemical companies knew about the dangers of PFAS but kept selling their products anyway.
