ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS OF PLASTICS
In addition to creating safety problems during production, many chemical additives that give plastic products desirable performance properties also have negative environmental and human health effects.
People are exposed to these chemicals not only during manufacturing, but also by using plastic packages, because some chemicals migrate from the plastic packaging to the foods they contain.
What Are Microplastics?
Microplastics comprise of tiny fibers from nylon clothes and other synthetic textiles.
They can also come from fragments of larger plastic items that have broken down in the natural environment. Plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters are generally considered to be microplastic.
Some studies have identified plastic particles as small as 10 nanometers (or 0.00001 millimeters). This therefore is one of the major unanswered questions — how small do microplastics actually get?
Well, it is likely that microplastics continue breaking down even past 10nm. Plastics are non-biodegradable, so they will probably just keep degrading into even smaller pieces.
This is important why,
The smaller the size of the plastic particles, the more likely they are to cross biological barriers (such as cell membranes) and cause tissue damage.
How do Microplastics Enter the Environment?
When plastics or synthetic textiles get littered, they start to break down. The sun, wind, rain, and other natural factors contribute to this process.
But Not at all,
Microplastics have also been found in the air that we breathe.
One way that microplastics can get into the air is through our clothing. When cloth fibers come apart from synthetic fabric, they can hang in the air and float along with it.
Another way that microplastics enter the environment is through water that passes through your home.
In a washing machine, small particles from clothing is rubbed off after every wash. These particles get into your home’s wastewater, which is then released into a wastewater treatment system.
Plastic microbeads from some hygiene and cosmetics products (like body wash) can also get mixed with your home wastewater, which is then also released into a wastewater treatment system.
Consumer Driven Change: Make a difference
There are alternatives to plastic, but only certain manufacturers and retailers are using them.
This means that the responsibility falls on us as consumers to take the lead and reward responsible companies with our business. While doing this, we are punishing those that don’t take environmental concerns seriously by not buying their products or services.
Whether the focus should be on changing consumer behavior or whether there should be a change in the law to force plastic manufacturers to use biodegradable materials is perhaps a debate for another day.
In the face of lobbying by the packaging industry, resistance to EU recycling targets by the UK government, and UK supermarkets that hide the scale of their plastic footprint, it’s clear that this is an area where our actions as individuals can make a difference and drive the change that’s so urgently needed.
The plastic you use once and throw away today will still be around in hundreds of years. And bits of it may show up in your drinking water, food, and the air you breathe.
So ditch bottled water, buy unpackaged fruit and vegetables, persuade your workplace to use a water filter to cut down on bottled water. Take a stand, and leave products with excessive plastic packaging on the shelf.
