California Plastic Bag Ban
I just reread my much earlier post on banning the use of plastic bags in Africa (Is Africa Ahead Of Us On This One) and noticed it was dated August 2007. So it's taken 7 years but finally another light of environmental sanity from my home state of California. Finally the banning of single use plastic bags in a state which holds more than 10% of our nation's population. These things are so ubiquitous in our landscape that should the composer of our National Anthem have written that song today they would have had to include "multi colored dots of shame" drifting over the fruited plain and amber waves of grain.
In the earlier post I mentioned the huge gyres of plastic debris floating in our planet's oceans, and while this creates a horrific image what should be just as alarming is the long term impacts to our ocean and its inhabitants, and right on up the food chain to us. Larger pieces of plastic debris have been found to choke marine animals or clog their guts, killing them directly, but what we should be even more concerned about is the largely unknown health affects to organisms, us included, caused by the myriad chemical components and break down products of plastics that are becoming ubiquitous in all parts of the ocean and in all its inhabitants, including the fish and shellfish we eat. Even should plastic bags and other plastic products make it to a landfill instead of a waterway leading to the ocean, the gradual leaching of plastic break down products can eventually reach groundwater and perhaps make it to our tap.
Although the plastics industry maintains that the components of its products are evaluated and are safe, these studies could not have considered all the chemical combinations of plastic products and by products that might enter our bodies and the bio-accumulation of these compounds over many years of increasing exposure. Evidence is growing for a variety of health effects to us and to other organisms. I, for one, am more than willing to give up the slight convenience of many single use plastic products to avoid covering the land and water of our planet with ever more plastic compounds in some grand chemical experiment with us, and every other organism on the planet, as guinea pigs.
That the manufacturers of plastic bags are crying about the ban is not surprising. Like the extracters of coal and fossil fuels they decry regulaton that reflects the advancements in science and our understanding of the environment. "Business as usual or you hurt the economy" seems to be their defensive mantra. "Adapt for the well being of our children and our planet" should be ours. We can insist on this ban in states nationwide. We can switch to reusable bags. Stores can switch to paper and share the few cents extra cost with us. Industry can switch to biodegadable plastics. We can do it. We have to do it, for our future.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/dangers-of-plastic
http://iwma.com/programs-events/Impact%20of%20Plastic.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/how-long-does-it-take-for-plastics-to-biodegrade.htm
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749113005642
In the earlier post I mentioned the huge gyres of plastic debris floating in our planet's oceans, and while this creates a horrific image what should be just as alarming is the long term impacts to our ocean and its inhabitants, and right on up the food chain to us. Larger pieces of plastic debris have been found to choke marine animals or clog their guts, killing them directly, but what we should be even more concerned about is the largely unknown health affects to organisms, us included, caused by the myriad chemical components and break down products of plastics that are becoming ubiquitous in all parts of the ocean and in all its inhabitants, including the fish and shellfish we eat. Even should plastic bags and other plastic products make it to a landfill instead of a waterway leading to the ocean, the gradual leaching of plastic break down products can eventually reach groundwater and perhaps make it to our tap.
Although the plastics industry maintains that the components of its products are evaluated and are safe, these studies could not have considered all the chemical combinations of plastic products and by products that might enter our bodies and the bio-accumulation of these compounds over many years of increasing exposure. Evidence is growing for a variety of health effects to us and to other organisms. I, for one, am more than willing to give up the slight convenience of many single use plastic products to avoid covering the land and water of our planet with ever more plastic compounds in some grand chemical experiment with us, and every other organism on the planet, as guinea pigs.
That the manufacturers of plastic bags are crying about the ban is not surprising. Like the extracters of coal and fossil fuels they decry regulaton that reflects the advancements in science and our understanding of the environment. "Business as usual or you hurt the economy" seems to be their defensive mantra. "Adapt for the well being of our children and our planet" should be ours. We can insist on this ban in states nationwide. We can switch to reusable bags. Stores can switch to paper and share the few cents extra cost with us. Industry can switch to biodegadable plastics. We can do it. We have to do it, for our future.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/dangers-of-plastic
http://iwma.com/programs-events/Impact%20of%20Plastic.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/how-long-does-it-take-for-plastics-to-biodegrade.htm
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749113005642
posted by ecovoice at
2:15 PM
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