What #plasticpollution #does to your #body, and what #you can #do about it
#Health
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https://lnkd.in/gbSmQQRS
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This image of a blue plastic pile represents the cumulative amount of #plasticwaste that would be generated between 2010 and 2050 — enough to cover the entire island of Manhattan, and ten times the height of the Empire State Building — under a business-as-usual scenario where no aggressive policy actions are taken. Credit: Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory
Plastics and the long-lasting chemicals they're made of are accumulating in our oceans, leaching into our farm fields and piling up in landfills.
Plastic is floating in the air and falling from the sky. It's also turning up in remote, isolated caves … so even if you have been living under a rock, you might have cause for concern.
What does all this #plasticpollution #mean for the #health of #people and the #planet? And what can we do about it? Experts across the University of California are tackling our big plastic problem from every imaginable angle, from chemistry to engineering, policy to art, medicine to oceanography.
They're coming back with key insights for elected officials and everyday Californians. And they're developing practical solutions to many of the dangers that plastics pose.
This is your #body on #plastic
#Scientists have #documented #plastic's #environmental #costs for decades, says Tracey Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UC San Francisco. "Even though we know plastics are essentially everywhere we look, there's actually not that much research on how they affect human health," Woodruff says.
California legislators concerned about these health effects recently came to Woodruff for advice. Lacking much data on humans, Woodruff consulted research on animal subjects. Nearly two dozen scientific papers later, she and her team at UC San Francisco's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment published a report concluding that exposure to plastics appears to reduce fertility and increase cancer risk. They also noted links to metabolic, respiratory and digestive disorders.
Woodruff's research focused on microplastics, particles smaller than about 5 millimeters. "They are essentially invisible, but they're everywhere," Woodruff says.
These shreds and shards flake off from dishes, clothes, tires and a zillion other plastic items, and then follow gravity, wind and water into almost every environment on earth. Along the way, their chemical residues seep into our food, water, lungs and skin, and from there to our guts, blood, brains, placentas and poop.
Scientists are still trying to untangle the chain connecting plastic exposure to cancer, but they've identified a few key links.
When the immune system detects microplastics, it responds with inflammation, an all-purpose reaction to just about anything the body recognizes as foreign.
Former Kennel Supervisor/Veterinary Technician at Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind
1moThanks for sharing this post. We should all follow in the students footsteps.