Adults and children ingest plastics every week through the food they eat and the water they drink with unknown long-term consequences,
according to a recent analysis by the World Wildlife Fund. According to the UN Environment Programme, scientists fear that chemicals in plastics and also chemicals that attach themselves to plastic in the natural environment could cause poisoning, infertility, and genetic disruption in marine life and potentially in humans if ingested in high quantities. Collectively, these harmful chemicals are known to cause the following severe health problems: Cancer, endometriosis, neurological damage, endocrine disruption, birth defects and child developmental disorders, reproductive damage, immune system damage, asthma, and multiple organ damage. Here are a few ways that humans are unknowingly ingesting plastics and associated chemicals.
Toxic chemical release during manufacturing is a significant source of the negative environmental impact of plastics. A whole host of carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and hormone disrupting chemicals are standard ingredients and waste products of plastic production, and they inevitably find their way into our natural environment through water, land, and air pollution. Some of the more familiar compounds include vinyl chloride (PVC is hard plastic made from vinyl chloride), benzene (found in polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam), and bisphenol-A or BPA (BPA is found in polycarbonate plastics that are often used in containers that store food and beverages, such as water bottles).
Freshwater areas are being inundated with plastics and waste, and drinking supplies are being dangerously degraded with poor filtering options. Landfills are designed to contain their materials and keep them from the surrounding environment; however, landfills still end up leaking a variety of pollutants. Leachate, a liquid that forms as materials break down in a landfill, often leaks through the liners of the landfill and can pollute groundwater, and local surface water.
Plastics absorb dangerous pollutants such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), DDE (the breakdown product of DDT, dichorodiphenyltrichloroethane), and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) from surrounding seawater, allowing these substances to accumulate at high concentrations. These chemicals are highly toxic and have a wide range of chronic effects, including endocrine disruption and cancer-causing mutations. When animals ingest these plastic pieces, the toxins are absorbed into their bodies, passed up the food chain and into our food resources. As plastics break apart in the ocean, they also release potentially toxic chemicals such as BPA, which can then enter the food web.
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