Editorial: The plastics you don’t see might kill you
4 years, 5 months ago

Editorial: The plastics you don’t see might kill you

LA Times  

Disposable gloves and face masks — along with antiseptic wipes, disposable grocery bags, and bottles of hand sanitizer — have been crucial first lines of defense against the coronavirus. Sadly, though disposable plastic masks and gloves may be helping to save lives now, they may be endangering our future health. In June, the COVID-19 pandemic collided with another national crisis — massive civil unrest driven by an overdue reckoning with systemic racism and police violence — and both crises pose more immediate existential threats than plastic. Plastic has long provided many benefits to human health existence — from medical catheters to product packaging that keeps food fresher for longer. No one is suggesting that we banish all plastic — just that we restrict usage only to what is necessary, and be mindful of the health consequences of the invisible plastic particles in our bodies.

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History of this topic

Plastic production to hit 1.1 billion tons by 2050: Study raises alarm on health risks from microplastics
2 days, 3 hours ago

Plastic production to hit 1.1 billion tons by 2050: Study raises alarm on health risks from microplastics

Hindustan Times  

Tiny plastic particles may be lurking in the air we breathe, and experts are raising alarms about their potential health risks. Rising plastic pollution and its health risks After analysing 3,000 studies, researchers from UC San Francisco suspect that microplastics may negatively impact reproductive, digestive, and respiratory health, possibly linking them to colon and lung cancer. "Microplastics are essentially particulate …

Can the World Unite to End the Plastic Pollution Crisis?
1 month ago

Can the World Unite to End the Plastic Pollution Crisis?

Live Mint  

-- The final round of United Nations-brokered talks aimed at tackling plastic pollution are opening in South Korea with deep divisions over the need to stem the rising flood of the material, a rift that threatens to scupper a two-year long quest for a deal. A coalition of nearly 70 nations, including Rwanda, Norway and the UK, is pushing for …

How to cut down on single-use plastics : Life Kit : NPR
2 months, 3 weeks ago

How to cut down on single-use plastics : Life Kit : NPR

NPR  

I ditched plastic for a week. NPR's Claire Murashima cut out single-use plastics for a week. Use bar soap instead of body wash in a plastic container. Avoiding storing food in plastic containers and swap plastic utensils with alternatives made from wood, glass or metal. More resources from NPR: Sponsor Message This episode of Life Kit was produced by Margaret …

Plastic is what’s forming our future, and it’s killing us
3 months, 1 week ago

Plastic is what’s forming our future, and it’s killing us

LA Times  

Some of you may be thinking that plastic is convenient to use, but is it convenient to kill the planet? Instead of using plastic water bottles, I use reusable thermoses or, if I did use a plastic water bottle, I can reuse it. Instead of using plastic grocery bags, bring old bags or reusable bags or use the paper bags. …

Microplastics found in human brains: Scientists urge global action
4 months ago

Microplastics found in human brains: Scientists urge global action

New Indian Express  

The widespread use of plastics has led to severe environmental contamination, with microplastics now infiltrating vital human organs, including the brain. A growing body of evidence reveals that these tiny plastic particles—less than 5 millimeters in size—are accumulating in the air, water, food, and even within human tissues. In a recent study, soon to be peer-reviewed and published by the …

The Cure for Disposable Plastic Crap Is Here—and It’s Loony
4 months, 3 weeks ago

The Cure for Disposable Plastic Crap Is Here—and It’s Loony

Wired  

A plastic bag might be the most overengineered object in history. Some years back, I stopped by a French deli to buy some big chunks of cheese and carried them home in a plastic bag. There’s plastic in grocery bags, obviously, but also in yoga pants and car tires and building materials and toys and medical products. A significant chunk …

How we became 'Plastic People': Startling new documentary tracks global spread of toxic microplastics from the bottom of oceans to inside the human brain - and how it all started with the 1950s throwa
8 months ago

How we became 'Plastic People': Startling new documentary tracks global spread of toxic microplastics from the bottom of oceans to inside the human brain - and how it all started with the 1950s throwa

Daily Mail  

From the summit of Mount Everest to the deep depths of the Mariana Trench, and even our brains, microplastics — tiny substances linked to cancer, infertility and a host of other health issues — are found everywhere. Dr. Sedat Gündoğdu at Cukurova University in Turkey, whose work studying fisheries led him to the microplastics crisis, showed the filmmakers some of …

Watch these hungry waxworms eat through plastic and digest it too
8 months ago

Watch these hungry waxworms eat through plastic and digest it too

BBC  

Watch these hungry waxworms eat through plastic and digest it too Getty Images Wriggling critters armed with enzymes can break down plastics that would otherwise take decades, or even centuries to degrade. But she's hopeful that the enzymes these worms produce could help tackle the world's plastic pollution crisis. Bertocchini is now chief technology officer at bioresearch startup Plasticentropy France, …

What can microplastics do to the human body? | In Focus podcast
8 months, 4 weeks ago

What can microplastics do to the human body? | In Focus podcast

The Hindu  

It’s hard to imagine a world without plastic now – plastic exists in almost every sphere of our life. Microplastics, the tiny toxic particles that plastics shed and that are scattered across the environment have been found everywhere – from clouds, to the bottom of the ocean, in Antarctica and even in our bodies – we swallow them and we …

Chemicals in plastics far more numerous than previous estimates, report says
9 months, 1 week ago

Chemicals in plastics far more numerous than previous estimates, report says

The Hindu  

At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics — from food packaging to toys to medical devices — than previously estimated by environmental agencies, a report published on Thursday found, raising questions over pollution and consumer safety. While the United Nations Environment Programme had previously identified around 13,000 plastic chemicals, the report by a team of European scientists found more …

Scientists discover proteins that can eat plastic
10 months ago

Scientists discover proteins that can eat plastic

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, …

The government needs to stop making matters worse
11 months, 1 week ago

The government needs to stop making matters worse

The Independent  

The Post Office scandal highlights why we need a new approach to politics that sets aside government by gimmick in favour of listening to people’s deep concerns and acting to address them. The statement “he doesn’t get Britain” was a direct reference to how Rishi Sunak and the Tory party misunderstand the needs of the British public. One last thing …

Plastic is here to stay. Is sustainable plastic possible?
1 year, 1 month ago

Plastic is here to stay. Is sustainable plastic possible?

Slate  

Plastic is a material of possibilities. But while this is an important goal, the idea that we’ll just stop needing plastic is “total wishful thinking,” says Velis. So, other research is looking into making polymers that could function like plastic, says Christopher Tassone, lead scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, which is another member of BOTTLE. There are …

Fighting plastic menace
1 year, 1 month ago

Fighting plastic menace

The Hindu  

Plastic waste is affecting not just the biodiversity, ecosystem and natural resources but also the health of humans and other animals due to ingestion of micro plastics. A recent release of the UN Environment Program stated that every day, equivalent to 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastics are dumped into the oceans, rivers, lakes and other natural water reservoirs — …

For the Love of God, Stop Microwaving Plastic
1 year, 4 months ago

For the Love of God, Stop Microwaving Plastic

Wired  

At the start of his third year of graduate school, Kazi Albab Hussain became a father. “At that time,” Hussain says, “I was purchasing many baby foods, and I was seeing that, even in baby foods, there are a lot of plastics.” Hussain wanted to know how much was being released from the kinds of containers he’d been buying. In …

The Planet Earth in a Plastic Soup
1 year, 6 months ago

The Planet Earth in a Plastic Soup

Hindustan Times  

The United Nations declared 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry to honour the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel award in Chemistry to Marie Curie and also to commemorate the contributions of chemical sciences in the progress of human civilization. Unsurprisingly, the United Nations has declared ‘#Beat Plastic Pollution’ as the central theme of this year’s World Environment Day — …

How much plastic is too much for our planet?
1 year, 11 months ago

How much plastic is too much for our planet?

Al Jazeera  

On Wednesday, January 11 at 19:30 GMT: Microplastics – tiny particles that result from the breakdown of plastics – are everywhere, from the air we breathe to the water we drink. And while the harms caused by microplastics are still being studied, researchers and environmental advocates say more action needs to be taken to rein in plastic pollution. Global plastic …

Most home compostable plastics don't break down, study finds
2 years, 1 month ago

Most home compostable plastics don't break down, study finds

The Independent  

The majority of plastics marketed as “home compostable” do not fully disintegrate and end up settling in soil, new research has found. The UK-based study, called The Big Compost Experiment, found that 60 per cent of home compostable plastics - used for items such as food packaging, bags and cutlery - do not break up within six months. An author …

The need for plastic de-addiction
2 years, 2 months ago

The need for plastic de-addiction

Hindustan Times  

“It cannot be right to manufacture billions of objects that are used for a matter of minutes, and then are with us for centuries.”--Roz Savage The catla fish swimming serenely could not have foreseen the plastic band wrapping around its body and entrapping it. The sea turtle feasting on what seemed like a new delicacy could not have imagined that …

Do single-use plastic bans work?
2 years, 5 months ago

Do single-use plastic bans work?

BBC  

Do single-use plastic bans work? Getty Images The problems caused by plastic waste are rapidly increasing around the globe, but it still serves a useful purpose in food packaging. In the end it often turns out to be more polluting to use cardboard wrapping than plastic, when the entire food production chain is taken into account – Romane Osadnick The …

Beating plastic pollution in agriculture
2 years, 6 months ago

Beating plastic pollution in agriculture

Hindustan Times  

The application of razor-thin sheets of polyethylene film across farmlands began in the 1950s when agronomists noticed that it could successfully moderate soil temperature, limit weed growth and prevent moisture loss. According to Food and Agriculture Organization experts, agricultural value chains use 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products each year. The use of plastics in agriculture could be the next …

What would happen if we stopped using plastic?
2 years, 6 months ago

What would happen if we stopped using plastic?

BBC  

What would happen if we stopped using plastic? Imagine trying to run a dialysis unit with no plastic – Sharon George Kseniia Zatevakhina/ Alamy In hospitals, the loss of plastic would be devastating Our food system would also quickly unravel. "I think initially we'd see all impacts increase," says Stuart Walker, a research fellow at the University of Exeter and …

Microplastics found in human blood for the first time. How it can affect you
2 years, 8 months ago

Microplastics found in human blood for the first time. How it can affect you

Live Mint  

Tiny particles of plastics, called microplastics, were detected in human blood for the first time, according to a study by a group of scientists in the Netherlands. Published in the journal Environment International, the study found that 17 out of the 22 healthy people the researchers took samples from had quantifiable amounts of plastic particles in their blood. The results …

Turtles dying from eating trash show plastics scourge in UAE
2 years, 10 months ago

Turtles dying from eating trash show plastics scourge in UAE

Associated Press  

KALBA, United Arab Emirates — The hawksbill sea turtle lay belly-up on the metal autopsy table, its shell ashen and stomach taut. A staggering 75% of all dead green turtles and 57% of all loggerhead turtles in Sharjah had eaten marine debris, including plastic bags, bottle caps, rope and fishing nets, the study found. “If there’s ever a time to …

From Mount Everest to Mariana Trench: Study Finds Plastic in 'Clean' Air
3 years ago

From Mount Everest to Mariana Trench: Study Finds Plastic in 'Clean' Air

News 18  

From Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, microplastics are everywhere – even high in the Earth’s troposphere where wind speeds allow them to travel vast distances, a study showed Tuesday. Scientists from the French national research institute CNRS sampled air 2,877 meters above sea level at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees, a so-called “clean station” because …

Sustainable Gastronomy Day: Of seafood and the plastic ocean
3 years, 6 months ago

Sustainable Gastronomy Day: Of seafood and the plastic ocean

Live Mint  

Nethili fry served with raw onions is a favourite bar snack through most of coastal south India and Sri Lanka. Nethili in Tamil, netholi in Malayalam, is among a few species of beautiful, small slender white fish called anchovies that are perfectly described by their Konkani name mothiyale—like pearls. While it is obvious that these nurdles could be transported far …

Many fish species, including those that are consumed by humans, are eating plastic
3 years, 10 months ago

Many fish species, including those that are consumed by humans, are eating plastic

Firstpost  

There is evidence that that microplastics and even smaller particles called nano plastics move from a fish’s stomach to its muscle tissue, which is the part humans typically eat. In a newly published study that we conducted with ecologist Elliott Hazen, we examined how marine fish – including species consumed by humans – are ingesting synthetic particles of all sizes. …

Many human organs are vulnerable to microplastics in the environment, new study demonstrates
4 years, 4 months ago

Many human organs are vulnerable to microplastics in the environment, new study demonstrates

Firstpost  

The researchers highlight that there is still much than needs to be studied around how plastic impacts humans. A study from 2018 found that plastics can pass through the human gut, but a new study from Arizona State University researchers indicates that human tissue and organs are capable of absorbing microplastics and nanoplastics too. The researchers tested a different set …

Where are the airborne plastics? Scientists find they are in the air we breath, the wind and the skies
4 years, 6 months ago

Where are the airborne plastics? Scientists find they are in the air we breath, the wind and the skies

Firstpost  

Plastic pollution isn’t just fouling the world’s oceans. “There’s no nook or cranny on the surface of the earth that won’t have microplastics,” said Janice Brahney, a Utah State University scientist who is lead author on the new study. But she added that the researchers seemed to be the first to ask through their research, “the basic science question: Why …

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