Plastics are everywhere and they may be slowly killing us

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially on a beautiful day like today when you are probably enjoying cricket, discussing the second Dune movie, or looking at the real (or imaginary) profits you made from crypto, but this should be breaking news.

A couple of new studies show that the problem of plastics is worse than we thought and that it has direct implications on our health.

We're familiar with the environmental damage caused by plastics that don't break down and just pile up in our surroundings.  However, recent studies published in top scientific journals are showing that the impact of plastics on our health is much worse than we thought.

Most plastics come from oil and gas, and they don't break down in nature. Instead, they keep accumulating, posing a long-lasting threat to our planet.

Every year, we produce over 430 million metric tons of plastic. Since the 1950s, we've made an astonishing 8.3 billion metric tons of it. By 2015, 6,300 million metric tons of plastic waste had accumulated, with only a tiny fraction being recycled. Most of it ends up in landfills or scattered around the planet. We could have 12,000 million metric tons of plastic waste by 2050, largely due to the packaging industry's shift to single-use plastic.

Plastic isn't just filling up our oceans and landscapes; it's getting into our bodies and could be harming our health.

A groundbreaking study from scientists at Columbia University and Rutgers University found shocking levels of tiny plastic fragments in bottled water. They discovered around 240,000 tiny plastic particles in a single liter of bottled mineral water, maybe around 100 times more than previous estimates.

The study used advanced techniques to find microplastics (tiny plastic pieces) and even smaller nanoplastics in the water.

So what can be done immediately?

Using non-plastic bottles like the ceramic bottles that are currently in vogue or good old glass or stainless steel.

When interviewed, a few of the authors said they would cut back on their use of water in plastic bottles, and it might be a good idea.

Some scientists also suggest that boiling tap water reduces exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics.

So what’s the big deal?

Microplastics have been found inside human bodies before, in our lungs, blood, and even placentas. These particles might cause health problems like lung inflammation, asthma, and cancer, and might interfere with our hormones.

Nanoplastics could be even more dangerous because their small size makes it easier for our bodies to mistake them for something natural.

But another recent study by a team of Italian doctors involving patients undergoing a specific type of surgery found that more than half had microplastics and nanoplastics in their arteries. Microplastics and nanoplastics were linked to a significantly higher risk of serious health problems like heart attacks and strokes.

Despite the small scale of this study, the evidence linking plastics to heart disease is strong and worrying. These findings are a clear signal that plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue, it's a health crisis.

Here’s my full column on this topic out today.

That’s it for now.

Anirban