Plastic pollution inextricably linked with numerous ‘public health crises’ • FRANCE 24 English
Now, the UN environmental program is hosting a conference in Geneva aimed at clinching a landmark treaty to combat plastic pollution. Organizers are aware the negotiations will not be easy, but they insist a deal is within reach. Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microlastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trenches, and even found in the human body. We can now bring in Bethany Connie Amroth, professor in the department of biological and environmental sciences at the University of Goththingberg. Thank you so much uh for joining us on the program today. Why should plastic uh pollution be a concern for all of us? Well, you mentioned it a little bit in your opening. Plastic pollution is found on every part of the entire globe in all of our environments, including the human body. And not only is the planet contaminated, but plastic is causing harm. It’s causing harm in the environment. It’s causing harm in in humans. People are exposed across the entire life cycle. And the crisis has become existential for some people and countries in the world today. What are some of the health risks uh with plastic pollution? One of the most wellestablished health risks from direct exposure is exposure to chemicals. There are more than 16,000 chemicals present or used in plastics. We know that 4,200 of those have hazardous properties and more than 10,000 lack data. And of those that we know something about, we know that they can be associated with increased cancer risks, with disruptions in hormone systems, with metabolic disorders, with reproductive disorders. So there are well doumented health impacts of chemicals and plastics. But plastics can also have indirect effects. They’re destabilizing the earth system. They’re impacting the environment. They can affect food security. They can lead to increased flooding and the fact that plastics are made from fossil fuels ties them very closely to the climate crisis that we’re also facing. Why do you think it’s so difficult u to reach an agreement to combat plastic pollution when as you said all countries and everyone is affected. There’s a few reasons for that. One is that plastics life cycle is very complex and plastics as materials are very complex. It’s not one thing, but rather thousands and thousands of things. And the plastics’s life cycle begins with extraction and production. That’s very closely tied to the fossil fuel industry. Since 98 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels, it involves all of these chemicals that I just mentioned. These are transported across the world. It involves trade. It involves production of products that we use in every part of our lives. Plastics are quite literally ubiquitous in all that we do. So there’s no one simple solution. We will need many solutions and there are a lot of different contentious ideas about what should be included in this treaty, what its scope should be, whether or not we should be looking at production and chemicals and so on. Are there certain age groups who are more susceptible to to the risk of plastics? We do know that children are more vulnerable than adults. They have developing hormone systems and organ systems. We know that chemical exposure and microplastic exposure occurs already in uterero. So humans are exposed throughout their literally their entire lives from before the moment that they’re born. And we know that early exposure to a lot of chemicals can have effects that are seen first later in life. And from a public health perspective, how dangerous is plastic pollution versus other environmental risks? It’s a that’s a difficult question to answer and I can’t say that I have a direct answer to that, but I can say that there are ties between plastics and a lot of other public health issues that we’re facing. So one would be air pollution. Plastics during their production phase contribute to the release of greenhouse gases, but they’re commonly incinerated in the waste phase. And incineration might occur in in plants that are are more more regulated. But open burning and uncontrolled burning is also very very common. And this this leads to releases of particulate matter of microanoplastics into the air but also of dangerous chemicals that become aerosolized things like dioxins which are very cancericenic. So people can be exposed to these again during the entire life cycle but plastics are as I’m explaining tied to a lot of other health crises. We also see plastics contributing to biodiversity changes with invasive species. There’s new microbial organisms that are growing on the surface of plastics, including human pathogens. So, there’s a lot of interconnections between plastics pollution and other public health crises. Uh, when it comes to to plastics, you mentioned that it’s tied to the fossil fuel industry. Is that why the lobby is so immense to take on? Yeah, the prochemical fossil fuels lobbyists and interest organizations are here and they have vested interests in this treaty. Of course, fossil fuels are important for with important ties to economies and these companies themselves also have vested economic interests in the continued production of plastics and petrochemicals. So there’s there’s definitely a factor in why they are here. Indeed. Uh Bethany Akani Amma, thank you so much for joining us on the program this evening. Thank
Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body. Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza welcomes Dr. Bethanie Carney Almroth, Researcher and Professor of Ecotoxicology at University of Gothenburg.
#Environment #PlasticPollution #Health
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8 comments
Very important topic. Plastic has contaminated the entire earth. We CAN find a solution.
We have a government that takes health advice from antivax idiots. Good luck fixing anything.
Who's fault is that? We used to use glass, but the liberals complained and told us to use plastic. So we use plastic and now they complain. At least with glass, you melt it and reuse it or grind it down like fine sand.
University of Gothenburg, Geneva Switzerland?
Why haven't you talked about this 10 or 50 years ago? This was predictible, took oil money that's why.
Human Extinction was always predictable.
Now it's unavoidable.
Don’t count on the US to participate nor actually reduce plastic use
Corporations buy politicians that have destroyed the land and seas. My heart sinks everytime I see shoppers buying pallets of bottled water, my heart sinks whenever I see gov't entities using bottled water. It's unconscionable. We've all contributed to the downfall of civilization.
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