Most people don’t realize it, but those plastics clogging our waterways and littering our roads and parks, blowing through our skies, and trapping ocean creatures are made up of thousands of toxic chemicals that harm our health, our children’s health, and the health of all the creatures who get tangled up in plastic, or unwittingly eat it or breath it. We have plastics in our lungs, in our brains, in our blood. Nowadays, babies are born polluted with plastics. As one public health researcher, Dr. Leo Trasande, put it during a recent summit Moms Clean Air Force hosted, Plastics: A Health Crisis in Plain Sight, there is basically no health concern, from cancer to chronic diseases, that isn’t linked to or worsened by plastics. He even mentioned new research tying plastics to heart and arterial problems.
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I listened as Dr. Shanna Swan described her decades of studies that show that endocrine disrupters (which mess with our hormone systems) in plastics, in pesticides, in soil and in our food may be associated with a global decline in sperm count that shows no sign of leveling off. Dr. Swan recounted an exchange she had during an interview with Joe Rogan — because, of course, the bros would care deeply about sperm count, as they should: “Joe Rogan said, ‘Do you mean the toxics we put into the environment are endangering the future of the human race? Why don’t people know about this?’” Swan went on to explain that she now considers it a vital part of her work to inform and educate the millions of people who have never heard of this problem. “They have no idea they are being poisoned.”
We should be freaking out. And we should also be angry. And then we should use all that energy to make some serious changes. Lots of “should” in those lines. But you know what? If we don’t demand change, it isn’t going to happen.
First, and please, do try this at home: Get as much plastic out of your lives as possible. Being a mom and a grandmother, the first thing I did was email my two sons about our summit. Now, let me admit: I proceed with caution on these kinds of alerts. It is hard enough being a young parent, holding down a job, trying to get through every day, without your mom calling you to say, “You cannot believe what I have learned about plastics — and you have to get rid of it! All of it!” It causes anxiety, to say the least. Well, it makes me anxious too. So, I did the old Mom Calculation… Which is more caring: to say nothing or to say something? I emailed them. (Honestly, I’m not the ‘stay silent’ type.)
I also called my friend and colleague, Lexy Zissu, an expert on getting toxic chemicals out of your life who has written six books, including The Complete Organic Pregnancy and Planet Home. Lexy always has solid advice on where to get the latest science on plastic danger. She referred me to Amy Ziff’s organization: MadeSafe: Made with Safe Ingredients. There’s also the Environmental Working Group, which does a great job of compiling ingredients and listing and rating products.
One large area of concern that caught my attention: Phthalates, chemicals added to plastics to increase their flexibility, durability, and transparency. You will find them in your house in carpeting, PVC piping, vinyl cladding, and other things, but they are also used in nail polish, moisturizers, eye shadows, liquid soaps, and perfumes. Small amounts, sure, but we are exposed every single day, for years, until we are no longer talking about inconsequential exposures. And we’re exposed to many kinds of these chemicals mixed together, too, changing and amplifying their impact. That’s why more companies are advertising phthalate-free shampoos and clothes detergents, for instance. Buy them.
Bottom line: get as much plastic out of your life as possible. We know it is next to impossible to get it all out. But keep those plasticizers off your skin, keep those plastics off food, transfer cheese and chickens and whatever else to glass, and please don’t microwave food in plastic containers. Don’t buy peanut butter in plastic jars — here’s a big thank you, Smuckers! for those beautiful, classic glass jars. Use loose tea steeped in stainless steel infusers. Get your kids into cotton or bamboo sleeping clothes — not fleece (made of plastic) — and get plastic, a.k.a. polyester, a plastic polymer derived from petroleum, out of your bedding. We breathe in microplastics all the time, especially if we are babies crawling around on polyester carpets, or kids playing on plastic turf, or if we are working in beauty salons. Just for instance.
There’s tons of guidance available, and once you start noticing exactly how plastic creeps into your life, you will be amazed at how much you can control.
But here’s my second and bigger takeaway from learning about how much toxic chemicals are in our stuff: Moms must double down on demanding that the people who make the products we buy, the people who sell our stuff, and the people whose job it is to protect us from dangerous chemicals, get to work! They are going to have a long road ahead, rebuilding our trust in the safety of the things we bring into our homes, slather on our bodies, and on our babies’ bodies, and cook in and, well, what part of life isn’t touched by plastics and the petrochemicals that make plastic? Even the air we breathe, because petrochemical plants are emitting some of the worst pollutants around. After listening to the scientists on stage, any trust between consumers and manufacturers should be entirely broken — and it will be, once millions of people understand how bad things have become. And that’s part of my job. Making sure people get the news.
Each scientist and public health expert on our panels agreed that we know enough, we have enough research, to know that we have a serious problem and that we have to demand change. “Scientists need to get off the speedbump of uncertainty and get behind what you know morally is where we need to go,” Robin Morris Collins, a former EPA advisor, told the summit audience.
But right now, instead of the industry vowing to clean up its pollution, the petrochemical and plastics lobbyists want to get around the Biden-era rules that require facilities to monitor their toxic pollution and to limit the release of potent carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, and other hazardous air pollutants — chemicals such as benzene, ethylene oxide, and 1,3 butadiene. We have an EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin doing everything he can to weaken protections against air pollution.
We have to believe: our voices matter. It matters to call Target, Walmart, Costco, and anywhere else you shop, and demand that they buckle down on requiring that manufacturers use safe chemicals. It matters to call your lawmaker and demand that they fight against what this EPA is undoing. These companies don’t want or need the bad PR. And we are the public in those relations, so we have to raise our voices. It matters to join your neighbors in fighting against the pollution coming from nearby chemical plants. All of it matters, but only if we all believe we matter enough to get off the speed bumps that keep us from heading as rapidly as possible to safety.