Plastic A Toxic Love Story By Susan Freinkel

Plastic isn’t known to be a substance made for consumption, but you may be eating it every day. In “Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic…Are You?” the author Susan Casey is informing us how bad plastic is polluting our oceans. Susan Casey is the author of a New York Times best seller, “The Devils Teeth”, helped publish Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm, and is the editor and chief of Oprah Winfrey’s Magazine “O”. She argues that these pollutants are doing damage in multiple facets, such as affecting food chains, disrupts organism reproduction, and directly cause the things we consume to be harmful to us. The author found many creative ways to appeal to all three persuasive appeals which are Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Although the article was great at the end she added things that weren’t needed and seemed to just be there as filler.

“Addicted to Plastic,” reveals the history of plastics on a worldwide scale; Connacher investigates toxicity and explores solutions surrounding the world

The plastic around the world is building up to become a huge world problem. Each year eight million tons of plastic

avoid plastic as a whole will do us all a great deal of good. If we don't, we will surely

After Berrier saw the problem, he couldn’t stop seeing it, plastic was everywhere! So, he took some time to do research and show the world what the danger truly is with all this plastic. Yes, sure there is plastic everywhere, so what? Why is this a problem? Berrier uses this documentary to explain just that. To bring this big problem to the light, he covers three main topics: Single use disposable items and the effect on our environment, ocean health, and human health.

One material dominates the entire world, a material incapable of degrading for centuries and used in all facets of life. While very new to the earth, this synthetic polymer has flourished rapidly since the 1950’s, and, still at full throttle in the 21st century, the Age of Plastic sees no imminent end. Plastic continues to ascend at an exponential rate as its plethora of uses extends to new branches of technology and innovation. Even with their differences, both the working class American and the CEO of an industrialized company utilize plastic for its low cost and versatility. Nevertheless, humanity cannot sustain this nonrenewable resource for long, and eventually the issues of this material will one day outnumber the benefits.

Entering the fifth section of her book, If you love this Planet, Helen Caldicott gives a brief synopsis of an experience she encountered with the initial release of the plastics industry. There was a slight differentiation in the style we lived years ago as she describes how much simpler times were and how complex provision has become. In this section titled, “Toxic Pollution”, her focus is plastic. Introduced to her in 1972 during her residency, plastic took over and quickly became a part of everyday life, replacing conventional tools and devices. From this small instance in her lifetime, she remembered most of how her environment was changing and now she sees the results from the millions of items implemented. Helen Caldicott is the character Public Health professionals identify as one individual that forms the target population. In the field of public health, the focus is to prevent disease, prolong life and promoting healthy lifestyles through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, legislations, communities and most importantly individuals.

Liborion notes that some plastics like PVC become flexible when creators add chemical additive monomers like BPA, making it versatile (Liborion 9). However, monomers are often hazardous to living things. The monomers like BPA are endocrine disruptors, correlating with brain development and fertility problems (12). The monomers give the plastic versatility but also give it agency to cause health problems. The plastic’s intrinsic properties also harm the environment as it affects marine life. The plastic’s hydrophobic properties also give it agency. Since hydrophobic substances attract each other, the plastic attracts dangerous, hydrophobic pesticides like DDt and HCH as it “moves across parking lots, down sewage systems, through harbors, and into open water” (14). Consequently, the marine and wildlife near/in the ocean consumes the substances, increasing chemicals in the ecosystem. This unintentional situation of biomagnification demonstrates its dangerous, inherent agency to harm the environment. The technology of plastic exhibits agency independent of its creator by affecting the natural environment with toxins from its hydrophobic property and additive monomer. However, the technology and consumer also display this complex

Plastic is in every part of modern day life. Today’s civilizations use it for everything from cleaning products to storage to safety equipment. Plastic has effectively become part of everyday life. It’s able to be used and discarded quickly, and often after it is tossed into the trash can it is forgotten. After it is thrown away, it may end up in one of two places, the local landfill or the oceans, where approximately fifteen to forty percent of plastics end up.

Initially when plastic was discovered, it gave people a sense of hope to accomplish things that were once thought of impossible. Additionally, new companies, factories and idea’s emerged as a result of the discovery of plastic and its flexibility in manipulating the chemical structure. For example, Industries in 1960 adapted to supply produce with plastics from plastics bags to plastic bottles because it saved them lots money from collecting raw materials from all over the world and it gave them the advantage to control the production. It was then thought of as a boon to our economy because people were able to divert from purchasing expensive materials to cheaper ones; however; people did not expect the plastics material to cause harmful effects on our environment. Furthermore, since the discovery of plastics by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, other researchers have came up

In the past, there have been a number of discussions about the risks plastic puts us in, not just with regards to the planet and environment, but our personal health. The debates didn't relent, and eventually changes were made to some plastics, with the plastic chemicals in these ones being considered safer. Unfortunately, these safer plastic chemicals aren't necessarily as safe as plastics manufacturers wanted you to think they were. A new study from the NYU Langone Medical Center suggests that a couple of chemicals found in plastics regarded as safe can actually have potential harm on children and adolescents, increasing their risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

Encouraged by the global economy of supply and demand plastic production has taken a major hold of our entire lifestyles. To the extent that as stated multiple times within the film that there is no part of the modern world left untouched by plastic. However, the problem lies not with plastic as a whole, but with the individual chemical compounds that make up plastic. Klaus Rhomberg an environmental physician, states “Plastic decays over time through heat,abrasion, use, or through natural processes”. This decay overtime has been shown to have adverse effects as depicted in the film. Director Werner Bootes undergoes a long journey collecting and documenting evidence of just how harmful plastic has become after it has served its initial use and even before depending on the plastics’ chemical composition.

Where does all the plastic go. Every bit of plastic that has been created is still here. This is because plastic is one-hundred percent non-biodegradable! Even the most degraded plastic down to polymers cannot be digested by bacteria (Laist, 1997). If global issues like starvation and climate change are not enough to stress on, the weight of an issue literally churning in the Pacific Ocean is startling. For decades the majority of the world’s population has not been properly educated on the nature of plastic and the potential harm it can do to our environment and our physical health. Due to factors of man and the natural effects of nature, a major problem has developed that is now harming our food.

People could get more benefits from plastic but every time people used it, they contribute in the destruction of the environment. Plastic material was made up of synthetic organic solids that are moldable. Due to plastic material relatively low cost, many manufacturers patronizing it because of expanding range of their products. Manufacturers displaced many materials that are used in the development of their products such as paper, wood, glass and water. Plastic was also used in packaging which is highly contributes in the development of the country. Even though people get benefits from plastic it has also many disadvantage. Plastic material is very harmful to health of humans and animals, it contributes in water pollution that can affect