The plastic problem

It is rare to see serious health concerns being highlighted in the ratings-driven space for news analysis on television. This is why it was refreshing to see a leading Geo talkshow raise concerns about the health hazards of plastic use. The infiltration of plastic in our lives over the last century is so high that we cannot seem to imagine a life without plastic. The dangers of burning plastic are better known – albeit ignored by many. But what is much less known are the health hazards of the use of plastic. Everyone has, at some point, experienced the strange taste of water left in a plastic bottle for a week or more. Being a chemical compound, plastic starts decomposing with a rather astonishing regularity and yet remains almost impossible to decompose in an environmentally-friendly way. In the discussion on television, the ability of plastic to decompose into poisonous substances after an encounter with household chemicals was what was key to the research presented. This is a matter of serious concern. But there is more to this story than how plastic reacts to other compounds.

Microplastic contamination has become almost all-pervasive. Billions of people around the world are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles. The microplastics are found in tap water in every continent, including Europe. The worst figures are for the US, where 94 percent of water that has been sampled is contaminated with 94 percent. This is a problem that emerges out of our encounter with an industrial and consumption-driven society. Lebanon and India are close seconds to the US, which is a good indicator of the levels of plastic contamination in Pakistan’s water supply. The already high levels of pollutants in our freshwater supplies were revealed earlier this year when almost 90 percent of Pakistan’s water supplies were found to be contaminated with bacteria, heavy metals and other industrial pollutants. Add to this plastic pollution and it becomes clear that the water we drink to give us life is taking us slowly to our death. Our food, air and water are all contaminated with plastic. The trouble is that there is not enough scientific information to predict what this could mean for us. There are more than eight billion tonnes of plastic lying untreated in the world. The little we do know is not good news. The issue requires a global solution, which might involve ditching an invention that has defined everyday consumption for an entire century: plastic.