\n Scientist Shanna Swan helped several couples reduce their exposure to increase their fertility.\n<\/p>\n
\n The culprits are chemicals added to make plastic flexible (phthalates) or durable (BPA).\n<\/p>\n
\n These disrupt hormones, affecting fertility, metabolism, and in-utero development, and are a major factor in cancers, obesity, chronic inflammation, and dementia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chemical industries respond to evidence of harm by saying that plastic is essential for safety, protecting food, transporting water, and producing safety devices.\n<\/p>\n
\n They say the health benefits outweigh the harm, while failing to note that novel toxins in water, soil, and air cause harm to all living things, not just humans.\n<\/p>\n
\n Also, they discount the impacts on smaller infant bodies highly sensitive to tiny amounts of novel toxins.\n<\/p>\n
\n Plastics are derived from fossil fuels, and the fossil fuel industry has transformed our planet in three major ways:\n<\/p>\n
\n Firstly, landscapes have been visibly altered by roads, sprawling cities, and vast industrial sites.\n<\/p>\n
\n Secondly, chemical pollution leaches into air, water, soil, and bodies, including fertilisers and pesticides derived from fossil fuels.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lastly, temperatures are rising faster than at any era in global history, with catastrophic disruptions of ocean flows and weather.\n<\/p>\n
\n All of these, and other extreme changes, interact to create disastrous situations we can’t easily anticipate.\n<\/p>\n
\n A study in Nature published in March shows the rate of warming has nearly doubled in ten years.\n<\/p>\n
\n The kind of scenario we must discuss is what happens when more extreme heat meets the waste plastics in our oceans, landfills, and cities.\n<\/p>\n
\n So, to bring this closer to home, when the 3G pitch is installed in Sloughbottom Park in Norwich, what will be the impact on hotter days when volatile compounds are released?\n<\/p>\n
\n Those defending the pitch say it’s essential to help young people get active and outdoors.\n<\/p>\n
\n In other words, the health benefits outweigh the risks.\n<\/p>\n
\n I wonder if they have been precautionary enough about human health in their planning.\n<\/p>\n
\n More widely, accusations fly about who cares most about people and nature, with a sense of justice on each side.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, are the defenders of toxic plastics considering the most sensitive bodies, including the other species we depend upon?\n<\/p>\n
\n Are they considering the needs of future generations as conditions grow more extreme?\n<\/p>\n
\n Are they imagining alternatives, accepting that this might mean slower, more expensive production, for example, using plant sources and making durable products that can be repaired?\n<\/p>\n
\n If you are concerned about the effects of plastic chemicals in our changing environment, here are some actions you could take.\n<\/p>\n
\n Carry out an audit of exposure to plastic-related chemicals in your home, school, community space, or workplace.\n<\/p>\n
\n This might include counting plastic waste, perhaps helping the Big Plastic Count.\n<\/p>\n
\n While doing that, check your contact with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and don\u2019t forget the linings of card and metal containers.\n<\/p>\n
\n It also means checking toxic sources, like shopping receipts, fire retardant sprays, perfumes in toiletry products, and plastic-derived clothing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Then reduce your exposure where it counts most.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you were microwaving food in plastic packaging, start putting it into a sturdy bowl.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wear cotton next to the skin and avoid sweating in synthetic clothes.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you waste money on plastic water bottles, invest in a glass or metal bottle.\n<\/p>\n
\n Discover and support groups working to end plastic pollution and dependence, such as members of the East of England Plastics Coalition.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you are adults in conflict over what is best for children\u2019s futures, support children to learn about the risks of plastic pollution.\n<\/p>\n
\n You might want to pose the arguments of the industrial lobbies too.\n<\/p>\n
\n Children can then understand how different lobbies influence debates, and they can contribute with their brilliant imaginations to suggest alternatives.\n<\/p>\n
\n Explore creative organisations raising awareness of these issues, such as Precious Plastic East.\n<\/p>\n
\n Visit the Groundwork Gallery in King’s Lynn, where artists George Nuku and Frances Kearney are addressing plastic, oceans, and our relationship to nature.\n<\/p>\n
\n Our children have a right to live well into their futures, to live in clean and safe environments that don’t cause life-limiting diseases and reduce their fertility.\n<\/p>\n
\n Climate impacts will make life extremely hard for them, but there is much we can do to clean up our world and reduce the threats of intersecting impacts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Did the participants on The Plastic Detox manage to have babies by reducing exposure after years of infertility?\n<\/p>\n
\n I will leave you to guess or find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientist Shanna Swan helped several couples reduce their exposure to increase their fertility. The culprits are chemicals added…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}