Death by plastic

MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

I'd like to think that most of us now know about this particular effect of plastics pollution.  Yet the infuriating truth is how little control we have, individually, over plastics pollution.  We can use cloth shopping bags, store food in glass rather than plastic, prioritize the purchase of items with the least packaging, all of which we should do-- in fact, you can take the Plastics Promise here at 5Gyres-- but without pressure on plastics manufacturers, we'll barely make a dent.  Greenpeace has some other actions we can take at the Trash Vortex.  

Of course, the effects of plastics pollution goes far beyond seabirds.  This Discover article gives a good overview of the human threats.

The Majestic Plastic Bag

From Heal the Bay.

PVC update

Someone commented on my post about  pressuring Toys R Us to stop selling toys made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and wanted to know why we weren't pressuring the toy manufactures rather than the toy distributors.  The problem is, 98% of the toys that were tested by the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) and
Teamsters Office of Consumer Affairs that tested positive for PVCs were made in China!

Toys R Us promised two years ago to make progress on PVCs, lead and other compunds in their toys.  from CHEJ's report:

Toys “R” Us’ Broken Promise: PVC and Organotins Widespread in Toys and Packaging
This investigation found that, despite its commitment more than two years ago, Toys “R”
Us continues to stock and sell an extensive assortment of toys and infant products that are
made of and packaged in PVC. These toys and packaging were also found to contain
organotins. Almost all of these toys were made in China.
Toys that tested positive for PVC include Barbie, “Toys Story 3” Woody and Buzz Lightyear
figures, Disney Princess Royal Giggles doll, Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster Hangout, Nickelodeon’s
Dora the Explorer and Diego figures, Sesame Street Elmo Faucet Cover, Club Penguin figurines,
Imaginext toddler action figures and many others, from dolls and balls, to baby bath time toys
and products, and even My Name Sippy Cups. PVC was also found in toys whose brands are
owned by Geoffrey LLC, a subsidiary.

Read the report and then take action.  Aren't we all getting a little sick by corporations profiting at our expense?  

More on baby bottles

Everybody else may get it, but, of course......yesterday the Food and Drug Administration declared that baby bottles that contain bisphenol A are safe, even as a new study, released by the American Medical Association, shows that heart disease and diabetes show up more often in those with higher levels of bisphenol A in their urine.

You can sign a Care2 Petition targeted at Congress calling for the banning of bisphenol A in children's products and food and beverages here.

Breastfeeding rocks!

Picture this: you have the most perfect food in the world to feed your newborn. This food has the perfect nutritional mix for your infant, protects your infant from a myriad of diseases, safeguards your infant against future obesity and offers some protection against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Instead you use an inferior substitute food. You put it in a plastic container that leaches toxins into the food product when you could have used a warm, pliable container that promotes a better bond between you and your baby.

And now, that inferior, substitute food may itself be tainted.

China is investigating one death and more than 50 serious illnesses caused by contaminated infant formula-- contaminated by melamine, the same industrial chemical that caused thousands of pet deaths in the United States last year. The chemical causes products contaminated with it to test as protein and is used because it's cheaper than real protein.

Canada is getting ready to ban all plastic baby bottles that contain bisphenol-A, or BPA, a chemical that mimics a human hormone and which has been shown to cause long-term changes in lab animals exposed to it. Of course it can also be found in canned soups, beans and soft drink containers-- in fact, it can be found in the urine of 95% of all U.S. residents. But exposing infants to this chemical so early in life is potentially much more dangerous. For some reason-- the influence of corporations on American public policy, perhaps?--

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promotes breastfeeding and tracks breastfeeding statistics. While 70% of U.S. babies had some breastfeeding immediately after birth, only 40& were being breastfed at three months, and only 10% at six months. When it comes to being exclusively breastfed, only 10% of babies were fed through six months.

My first daughter was born six weeks early and delivered by caesarean section in September, 1967. She weighed 5 lbs, 1 oz. They let me breastfeed her the first few days to promote immunity. Then, my baby's pediatrician came stopped into the hospital to tell me she was losing weight and that I needed to switch her to an enriched formula. I still remember the guilt I felt over my milk not being good enough for my baby. It took me years to find out that all newborns lose a little weight directly after birth.

By the time my second daughter was born in 1977, I knew a lot more. I was also 30, not 20, and more able to resist the pressure to start feeding her the empty calories of baby cereal at three months! She had no solid food until 6 months. She was still nursing occasionally after her first birthday.

I know breast feeding can be challenging and time-consuming, and that there's not a lot of support out there for mothers who want to give it a serious try. But if it wasn't possible for almost every mother to succeed, we wouldn't have survived as a species.

Breastfeeding rocks!

100,000 marine mammals, 1 million seabirds die

Maybe if 100,000 marine mammals ans 1 million seabirds all died on the same day every year, in a very visible way, we would start taking plastics pollution of our oceans seriously. Instead, this is the yearly toll that plastics pollution causes, and most of us don't see it. That makes it easy to ignore, easy not to take actions that would make a difference.

The NY Times has an article on efforts to clean up plastics pollution on the shores of Gore Point, Alaska. I wrote about plastic in our oceans here and here in February and April. Stop and Shop is certainly promoting re-usable bags in its grocery stores, but so far has not yet discontinued plastics. Hope they do it soon.

Last month Gov. Patrick signed the nation's first comprehensive Ocean Planning legislation.

The legislation, sponsored by Senate President Therese Murray, Senator Robert O'Leary and Senator Bruce Tarr, ends decades of ad hoc decision making by placing oversight, coordination, and planning authority of the state's ocean resources with the Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. That authority will be exercised through an ocean management plan and advised by a broad-based, 17-member ocean management commission, including state agency representatives, state legislators, municipal officials, and environmental, fishing, and marine industry stakeholders. Most importantly, the legislation provides for a balanced and coordinated plan for growth. More at the Mass Ocean Campaign.

On Saturday, September 20, the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup will take place. Last year, 378,000 volunteers from 76 countries and 45 states cleared six million pounds of trash from oceans and waterways and recorded every piece of trash collected. Besides better managing your own use of plastic, you can take part in this clean-up, and learn more about what we can do, by signing up here. You can send a great e-card, too. Take action!

Plastic, chemicals and declining fertility rates: what, me worry?

Back in the early 80's I wrote an article for the Valley Advocate on the decline in sperm count in American men. I can't find it now but what sticks in my mind is that 20 million/mL was now considered within normal range whereas only thirty years before, 80 million/mL was normal. I remember that the chemical dioxin figured prominently as a suspect.

In 1996, Michael Castleman at Mother Jones magazine was bewailing the fact that fourteen years after NBC canceled an interview with the author because the story just wasn't firm enough, declining sperm rates still hadn't cracked prime time.

The silence is still deafening in 2008. We're starting to get the global picture, and we think about our bodies in terms of health, but don't think about declining sperm count unless we're actually trying to have a baby. Talk about a "silent epidemic."

The number of toxic chemicals found in semen and the rest of our bodies is quite astounding. The latest chemical to draw public attention is bisphenol A, a chemical used in the manufacture of hard plastic, including plastic baby bottles. Last week CVS, Walmart and other companies announced that by next year, all such bottles would be off their shelves and replaced with a different (presumably safer) type. Canada intends to ban all bottles with the chemical in 60 days unless evidence can be produced that the chemical is harmless. (Canada is using the Precautionary Principle to make its decision, which manufacturers of the bottles say is unfair. Here's the definition from Wikipedia:

The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.^[1] It aims to provide guidance for protecting public health and the environment in the face of uncertain risks, stating that the absence of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason to postpone measures where there is a risk of serious or irreversible harm to public health or the environment.)

93% of the U.S. population has bisphenol A in their bodies, according to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some years ago I remember reading that after a while, plastic milk bottles become permeated with fat from the milk. And where do those plastic molecules go, pray tell?

While we're working on the policy issues that affect our well-being, what can we do on a personal level? (Yes, it's still worth it.)

Don't heat food in the microwave using a plastic container. Don't store liquid food, especially acid or fatty foods in plastic. (Come on, hasn't some part of you always known it was a bad thing to do?) In the supermarket, look for foods stored in glass and hang on to the containers later for other uses. Because people don't cook much anymore, secondhand stores usually have plenty of great bakeware with lids, tall glass jars and other dishware for which you'd hesitate to pay full price.

Whatever control over our local environment that we can take, we must.