Plastic. I’m not going to argue that plastic hasn’t made our lives more convenient. It certainly has. But that convenience has come at a tremendous price. I want to talk about that here today.
I remember Graham returning from his Class Afloat trip and telling us about all the trash they saw floating in the ocean. Plastic everywhere. Islands of trash. He recommended a great movie about the bottled water industry, and about the dangers of plastic in general and I highly recommend everyone watch it. Toxic chemicals aside, the economics surrounding the issue are fascinating… and disturbing. One that sticks out for me: the US uses 18 million barrels of oil to transport water for bottling, and that number is growing. Rapidly.
Our use of plastic has become overuse. Even areas of the planet that have hardly seen a human let alone a bottle of water are suffering the effects of this. High levels of plastic pollution has been found in areas uninhabited by humans:
UV light and the salt in seawater cause microscopic particles of plastic to emit toxic chemicals such as PCBs and DDT. When ingested by many types of marine species, these can be mistaken for estradiol, a sex hormone, causing a variety of symptoms related to endocrine disruption. Additionally, the chemicals tend to bioaccumulate in organisms as they move up the food chain, and can eventually lead to tainted populations of fish that humans regularly consume.
These sorts of problems have led Charles Moore, an oceanographer and racing boat captain who played a significant role in discovering and publicizing the great Pacific Garbage Patch, to argue that plastic pollution has become a more urgent problem for ocean life than climate change. “The sad thing is we thought Antarctic waters were clean,” he told the Australian Associated Press after the Tara‘s findings were announced. ”We no longer have an ocean anywhere that is free of pollution.”
The chemicals and toxins from that plastic are ingested by the animals in the sea and then ingested by humans. These chemicals are endocrine disrupters, which interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects in both humans and wildlife.
Speaking of endocrine disruptors, let’s chat about BPA for a minute. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is added to plastics to make them more durable. BPA disrupts hormones by mimicing estrogenic effects in the body. BPA leaches from packaging into food and water and then into our bodies. Over 92% of people tested in a CDC study had BPA (and other plastics) in their bodies… including newborn babies. A Yale School of Environmental Studies report cites research that links BPA exposure to male genitalia malformation, early female puberty, increase in breast and prostate cancers, infertility, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and allergies.
And if BPA wasn’t enough, we’ve got his red-headed stepsister Phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals found in many plastics and in indoor air. They are considered to be harmful to men and boys, especially those exposed in utero. They are connected to impairment of the immune system, premenopausal breast cancer, reduced testosterone, male infertility, neurodevelopmental problems in newborns, and more. The EU banned Phthalates in 2005.
The documentary Unacceptable Levels is about plastic pollution. Even the trailer is grossly unsettling:
The point that I want to make here is that its so. damn. easy. to choose convenience over the health of our bodies and the health of our environment. It’s easy to think that what is sold in stores isn’t going to harm us. It’s easy to rely on modern inventions and time savers instead of taking the time to plan ahead.
I’ll admit that most of the time, I feel like the whole anti-plastic thing might be a losing battle… but, I keep reminding myself that we are all able and capable to start making better choices. So… what choices can we make?
– use stainless or glass water bottles (we want to drink the purest water we can. Why would we want to put that water into a substance that has the potential to leach toxic chemicals into that water? Make sure you have a water filter if your water is fluoridated)
– recycle (the length of time it takes for plastics to break down leaves the outlook for the future and plastic pollution rather bleak. Recycling helps.)
– choose non-plastic children’s toys, or make sure they are BPA, PVC, lead and Phthalate free
– use glass or stainless food storage containers (I’m working on parting ways with my beloved plastic wrap. We now use these for kids lunches and they are the schnizit)
– switch to reusable grocery bags (this one is going to be easy!)
– stop buying food in plastic packaging (this one is going to be hard!!)
Scroll back up to the top of this post and take a look at Evan’s face staring back at you. I never said it was going to be simple… but let’s do it for him… so he is healthy as possible, and so we are too. We want to be the big (not that kind of big) crowd at his graduation screaming embarassingly “Thats-a my baby!”
xo Andra
Sources, and therefore interesting additional reading:
The Problem with Plastics from Yale University
National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals from Centers for Disease Control
High Levels of Plastic Debris Found in the Waters Off of Antarctica from Smithsonian.com
Endocrine Disruptors from Paul Goettlich
Phthalates from The Breast Cancer Fund
The Dangers of Plastic from Wellness Mama
Water Scam Alert! from Mark’s Daily Apple
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