Microplastics Are an Existential Health Threat - Here Are 3 Ways We Can Face the Problem

As the routine visitors to this website know, plastics are known to be an ongoing threat to the welfare of the environment, the wildlife and even ourselves. This article from Katie Couric Media recommends that it is time for us rethink how and why we use plastics in our daily lives.

As we have this reckoning with our reliance on plastics, the author of the article includes some questions that we should ask ourselves such as: Would you still use plastic products if you learned that they leach toxic chemicals into our food and water and those chemicals are associated with countless health problems?

To reinforce this recommendation to reconsider our reliance on plastics, the article includes access to a very informative video entitled, Testing for Microplastics (Searching for Microplastics in the Human Body). Many of our routine visitors should remember Dr. Sherri Mason who made a presentation to Bay members back in 2022. She is one of the presenters in this video and along with the other presenter, Rick Smith, author of the book, Slow Death By Rubber Duck, they offer information about a recent series of tests that show that plastics are indeed present in the human body. What makes their presence more problematic to our health is that the plastic particles tend to have “stuck” to them many other chemicals often known to be toxic that the particles have been exposed to or that were part of their composition when they were made.

The article’s author concludes that we have an opportunity “to empower consumers, enlighten industry, and compel policy makers to shift from toxic plastic to cleaner, healthier materials.”

Here is the article:

Microplastics Are an Existential Health Threat - Here Are 3 Ways We Can Face the Problem