By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
in many ways.”
One time we ate at this at this restaurant along Halsema highway and one of our companions found a piece of plastic in his chopsuey. This plastic, apparently part of a torn plastic bag, was cooked with our food! Apparently, it was no issue with the kitchen staff because they didn’t even say sorry when we complained!
So what if there is plastic in our food? Well, it seems harmless but do you know that plastics contain chemicals that interfere with our hormones and cause major life-threatening diseases like cancer . These chemicals can also decrease fertility, suppress immune system, cause birth defects and child development problems, etc. Plastics contain bisphenol-A (BPA) and diethylhexyl phthalate (DHEP) and these are found to disrupt the endocrine system. As a result of this finding, some countries have banned the use of BPA in plastics. Thus, if you are observant, you can see some plastic bottles, especially nursing bottles, that are marked “BPA-free.”
What are plastics, by the way? Plastics are those products which are flexible, tough and yet lightweight materials. They are everywhere – the plastic that you use to carry your groceries, plates, cups, toothbrushes, Teflon coating to nylon stockings. Oh yes, nylon pala is plastic. Try stretching it and tearing it. By golly, come to think of it, many of our clothes and blankets nowadays are plastic! In medical care, almost all gadgets and items have been replaced by plastic- dextrose bottles, syringes, etc.
What are plastics made of? Well, I haven’t been a worker in a plastic factory but we are told that plastics are a combination of synthetic chemicals and petroleum-derived chemicals. Ingredients include colorants (to give those vibrant colors), and other artificial chemicals to give the desired characteristic. The problem is that many of these ingredients, as mentioned earlier, are toxic. We are also told that some plastics are made from natural ingredients but these are expensive. So you can be sure that most of the plastics we have at present are synthetic, artificial, created in the factory by people, not by God. All the while, I thought all plastics were artificial thus we call a hypocrite “plastic”.
Then there are many kinds of plastics, depending on their characteristics like how fast it can degrade, is it resistant to heat or not, is it photodegradable (degraded when exposed to sunlight) or not, etc. Perhaps you have noticed that some plastic bags just crumble after six months or so. Some plastics are just so hard that you can cook it and it doesn’t melt like what our companion found in his chopsuey and like Teflon. You know, these popular so-called Teflon pots and pans. That black coating is plastic so you should be careful not to use metal spoons as it will fall apart. So if the black coating in your pan has disappeared, then where did it go? Where else but to your food. So actually, there can be a lot of plastics contaminating our food. Ok lang kung malaki yong plastic so we can see it and remove it but how about these teeny weeny bits? To complicate the matter, these differing degradation of plastics mean that plastic wastes should be sorted, too!
Plastics contaminate our bodies and our environment in many ways. First, during manufacture and recycling of plastics, toxic chemicals are already released, polluting the air and inevitably will find their way to the land and water. Second, plastics can contaminate our food and drink directly when these come in contact with the plastic like bottled water, plastic feeding bottles and foods packed in Styrofoam or other forms of plastic. This is especially so when the food or drink is hot or corrosive.
Third, plastics can degrade into microscopic matter called microplastics, so small we don’t see them normally. They can be dust and these are in the air in our homes and offices and environment. This is not surprising, though, because many of our clothes, blankets, foam, etc. are made of plastic – nylon, polyester, acrylic. These plastic fibers have been found in our oceans and damaging marine life and ecology. Fish and other marine life ingest these and end up in our dining tables. What more, studies have found plastic fiber and fragments in beer, honey, and sugar. Isn’t that scary?
The fourth process by which plastic can damage to our health is when we burn it and this is the worst we are doing. Burning plastics releases toxic gases like carbon monoxide and dioxins into the air. We know carbon monoxide is so toxic that inhaling it can result in instant death. Dioxin is not so well known. If you don’t know it yet, dioxin is a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is a known carcinogen (causes cancer), based on the World Health Organization classification. Aside from cancer, dioxin is also linked to birth defects, inability to maintain pregnancy, decreased fertility, reduced sperm counts, decreased testosterone levels, immune suppression, lung problems, skin disorders and more.
Moreover, these toxic gases released when plastic is burned are greenhouse gases and of course, will contribute greatly to global warming. Global warming is reducing the “apit” (food production) (look at our local camote as an example), altering disease patterns (cool places where previously didn’t have dengue fever now have it because of the warmer climate) and directly hitting people like heatstroke.
The effect of plastic pollution is cumulative and long-term thus many people don’t see the connection. Well, we don’t need to see the polymers in the plastic to believe and the cancer that it can cause. We can just take note of the garbage of plastics dumped on our lands and in our rivers and seas. What we see is a macro-image of what happens inside our bodies.
Today, April 22, is Earth Day. The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970 when millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impact of 150 years of industrial development. “In the US and around the world, smog was deadly and evidence was growing that pollution led to developmental delays in children. Biodiversity was in decline as a result of the heavy use of pesticides and other pollutants.” (Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers). That was 48 years ago.
This year’s Earth Day theme is “End Plastic Pollution” and the celebration is “dedicated to providing the information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics” (www.earthday.org). For the sake of future generations, we can do a lot individually and as communities to end plastic pollution. The first step is to refuse single-use plastics and refuse burning garbage (because surely, there is plastic mixed with it.) And let’s join the Run for Trails today in Baguio City organized by the UP Baguio Mountaineers. Not so much effort, eh? Cheers to a healthy Mother Earth!***
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
