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“We just wanted to see the effect of plastic itself, but that’s not what is really in the environment,” Ross says. “Plastics in the environment are not this way; they’re not pristine.”
Plastics also release toxic chemicals into the environment and cause physical, chemical harm and biological damage to organisms. Ingestion of plastic does not only lead to death in animals through intestinal blockage but it can also travel up the food chain which affects humans. [101]
Humans are exposed to toxic chemicals and microplastics at all stages in the plastics life cycle. Microplastics effects on human health are of growing concern and an area of research. The tiny particles known as microplastics (MPs), have been found in various environmental and biological matrices, including air, water, food, and human tissues.
“Our world is drowning in plastic pollution,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message to delegates on Monday. “By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the ...
In 2016 alone, the U.S. produced 42 million metric tons of plastic, equating to about 286 pounds per person, according to a paper published in Science Advances in 2020 -- nearly more than the ...
Plastics have proliferated in part because they are relatively benign. They are not acutely toxic, in large part because they are insoluble and or indigestible owing to their large molecular weight. Their degradation products also are rarely toxic. The same cannot be said about some additives, which tend to be lower molecular weight.
Marine animals are not the only animals affected by improper plastic bag disposal. Sea birds, when hunting, sense for dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which is produced by algae. Plastic is a breeding ground for algae, so the sea birds mistakenly eat the bag rather than the fish that typically ingests algae. (National Geographic) [22]
Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it's actually about one-tenth of that.