Perils of plastics - Risks to human health and the environment.

by Nick
(Montreal)

This is an excellent article on the perils of plastic, by Richard Harth. In it, he focuses on the work of Rolf Halden, associate professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University.

Here is one of the opening paragraphs:

“Today, plastics accumulate in garbage dumps and landfills and are sullying the world's oceans in ever-greater quantity. And plastics and their additives aren't just around us, they are inside virtually every one of us— present in our blood and urine in measureable amounts, ingested with the food we eat, the water we drink and from other sources.”

This is one of the first articles I have read that attempts to look at the full picture of “bad plastics” – both as a source of global pollution, and as a source of toxic chemicals which get into our bodies.

He closes his article with an excellent quote:

"We are at a critical juncture," Halden warns, "and cannot continue under the modus that has been established. If we're smart, we'll look for replacement materials, so that we don't have this mismatch—good for a minute and contaminating for 10,000 years."

What a great summary of the impact of plastics – “good for a minute and contaminating for 10,000 years”.

Read the full article here...