Plastics Have Hazardous Influence on Human Health

In the article, "Plastic in Our Oceans", Kimberly Amaral discusses the everyday uses of plastic and how it can be beneficial to humans, but harmful to marine life. As fishermen casually dump waste overboard, animals mistake it for food sources, such as a turtle mistaking a plastic grocery bag for a jellyfish. From the trash brought out to sea, gyres, large circulations of water, carry the garbage through currents, spreading it to all over the ocean, specifically to the central gyre. Amaral notes common ways for marine life to die from plastic, which include entanglement by plastic rings, consumption of plastic bags and pellets which stuff the intestines and lead to health problems, and suffocation. As researchers today work hard to discover

Almost 96% of plastic bags are disposed of in landfills (Williamson, 2003). This leads up to another problem as plastic bags are non-biodegradable - in other words, plastic bags do not biodegrade for over a thousand years (Stevens 2001). Plastic bags may also land in farms and in oceans which have an impact on the wildlife. Livestock such as cows may eat plastic bags while grazing. These pose a threat if ingested as they may tangle in their stomachs, causing serious injuries and potentially death (Dreyer et al, 1999; Rasmussen 1999). Each year over a billion birds and mammals die due to the ingestion of plastic bags (Baker, 2002).

According to Ocean Crusaders, there is over 100,000 marine animals that die each year because of plastic bags. “Beaked whale species in particular are highly susceptible to swallowing plastic bags as they are believed to strongly resemble their target prey, squid,” Britannica Advocacy for Animals states. Animals do not know what a plastic bag is, and often mistaken them for food. When an animal ingests a plastic bag, the plastic bag will be stuck in the gut for a very long time, sometimes more than 1000 years! Also, food would not be able to go through the intestines anymore and would probable cause the animal to die slowly. Since a plastic bag takes around 1000 years to completely decompose, it means that by the time the animal decomposes, the plastic bag is still not fully decomposed and will be back in the ocean, ready to kill another animal. As you can tell, plastic bags are very harmful to animals, especially marine animals. When plastic bags are banned, there is no chance of it going into the ocean, and many animals will be saved.

It is known today that 60% of the plastics being dumped into bodies of water get ingested by animals in the oceans (Center for Biological Diversity, http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/). Humans use plastics everyday, but what we don’t realize is that after recycling our bottles, they end up being dumped into our oceans where ocean life mistakes a plastic bag for a jelly fish. Today plastics can be one of the main causes of intestinal blockage which ends up clogging the animal 's stomach, not allowing them to digest any kinds of food eventually dying off (Macklin, 2015). Although there is no way that all researchers will be able to prevent

Walking through the traditional grocery store, consumers find hundreds of plastic items to make their lives more convenient. Individually wrapped pop tarts, plastic zip lock bags to store sub sandwiches for lunch, deodorant cases, plastic combs to groom hair, diapers, and soda bottles. Unless specifically requested to carry a cloth bag, even the bags we use to carry our groceries home are produced plastic. To society, these are items of convenience and not necessity. But to marine animals that reside in our ocean, they can be a hazardous warzone, “which ends up polluting our oceans and killing millions of birds and fish and more than 100,000 sea turtles, according to the Sierra Club”(D.G.22). Plastic whether it is a syringe,

Plastic bags, balloons, glass bottles, shoes, packaging material—if not disposed of correctly, almost everything we throw away can reach the sea...This garbage can also come back to shore, where it pollutes beaches and other coastal habitats.” Whenever one litters, a lot of that garbage will eventually find its way to the ocean, causing the oceans to become filthy. But, the garbage does not only just stay in the ocean, the garbage comes back to the land to the shores and causes pollution on the coasts. Another quote from the article is, “Plastic garbage, which decomposes very slowly, is often mistaken for food by marine animals. High concentrations of plastic material, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking the breathing passages and stomachs of many marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals, puffins, and turtles. Plastic six-pack rings for drink bottles can also choke marine animals.” This quote explains how the garbage in bodies of water impact the marine species, the marine animals can even die from the garbage. Both of these quotes tie in with our topic because the article gives information on the impacts of

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.

Other diseases have chemical connections to plastic. Women are affected more by plastic pollution. Pregnant women who were exposed to plastic chemicals gave birth to kids with genital defects.

Australian marine wildlife is becoming obsolete at what seems to be a very fast rate. It is quite common to watch the news on national television and hear about our coastlines becoming drowned in plastic and toxic waste. Misuse of goods such as plastics in our communities, are being found in our waters which in turn, is causing life threatening disasters for marine wildlife. Plastic debris can cause injury or death through drowning, entanglement, internal injuries and starvation from ingestion (“Marine Debris - What is Australia doing - Home Page”, 2016). Through the misuse of plastics Australia now has a number of endangered and vulnerable species in our marine wildlife. Thus, this inquiry will explore the impact and severity that plastic

Birds, fish sea turtles, and other animals get tangled in plastic bags or mistake them for food and choke.” Plastic bags are proving to be additionally dangerous than helpful because plastic could result in the endangerment of certain animal species. For instance, the albatross from Midway Island, which is completely brimming with all varieties of plastic, consumes multitudes of plastic and the majority of it remains in its stomach and the remaining is fed to its chicks. As a result of the overwhelming amount of plastic on Midway, the albatross’ diet will become merely plastic because that’s all that is available in its habitat. The plastic that is ingested affect the animal negatively, and it will eventually die. The effect plastic bags possess on the environment is undeniable, so there is no reason to state that plastic bags should be retained because they’re not harmful.  All of this is avoidable, plastic bags are not a necessity for us, we can utilize paper towels to collect our dog’s waste, reusable grocery bags etc. for grocery shopping. Similarly, as stated in the quotation it affects

By the year 2050 plastic bottles will outnumber fish in the ocean. Last year a study by the National Academy of Sciences showed that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic currently littering the ocean. Many people believe that throwing away plastic would have negligible impact on humans and animals, this is untrue. Thousands of birds, turtle, seals, fish, and other marine animals die every after entangling themselves in or consuming the tons of plastic currently in the ocean. Plastic is such a durable material that according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, every single bit of plastic ever made still exists. The ocean has turned into our own personal landfill, affecting millions of lives. Organizations such as

Human exposure can occur through multiple routes, however oral exposure is the major route of exposure to BPA, thus, oral exposure occurs because of the leaching of BPA from polycarbonate containers and from the plastic lining of cans (Chris et al., 2009). Furthermore, BPA is also detected in indoor air primarily associated with dust, which indicates exposure can occur through inhalation (Taylor, 2008). Exposure to BPA in humans received dramatic attention when it was detected in serum, follicular and amniotic fluids, fetal serum, milk of nursing mothers, and in the urine (Gould et al., 1998). BPA as one of the potential EDCs to health risk and may interfere with the production or activity of hormones in the human endocrine system (Gould et

According to greentumble.com, the author states that “Plastic bags and their associated plastic pieces are often mistaken for food by … marine life like fish and sea turtles.” This shows that any sea animal could be the next victim for the vicious plastic bag. According to conserve-energy-future.com, the author states that, “What happens when they consume these plastic materials is that their digestive system gets congested leading to the development of health infections and death when there is suffocation.” This shows that the effect of these plastic bags on the helpless marine life could get ugly very fast. According to the third and final article, ecowatch.com, the author states that “One in three leatherback sea turtles have plastic in their stomach, most often a plastic bag, based on a study of over 370 autopsies.” This shows that the plastic bags are on the attack and are searching for their victims at rapid speed. Plastic bags should be banned because they are ruthlessly damaging innocent creatures that mean no harm to

In the U.S, 1,500 bottles of water are consumed every second. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is used to make plastic hard and translucent. BPA is an “endocrine disruptor” which has showed to be hazardous to human health. There is an ardent correlation between BPA and certain types of cancers. As well as neurological difficulties, reduced fertility, early puberty in girls, and defects in newborn babies. The chemical enters the body through exposure to plastics, such as bottled drinks and disinfecting products. Bottled drinks also contain Phthalates, a chemical used to make plastics more flexible. It’s also an endocrine disrupting chemical that causes a variety of defects in the human body. Bottled drinks have also fundamentally disrupted the lifestyles of animals as well. Currently, plastic water tops are not recyclable. They usually end up at the bottom of the ocean, then later consumed by sea animals, mistaking it for food. Plastics bottles additionally require an excessive amount of fossil fuels in order to make a

We 're treating the oceans like a trash bin: around 80 percent of marine litter originates on land, and most of that is plastic. Plastic that pollutes our oceans and waterways has severe impacts on our environment and our economy. Seabirds, whales, sea turtles and other marine life are eating marine plastic pollution and dying from choking, intestinal blockage and starvation. Scientists are investigating the long-term impacts of toxic pollutants absorbed, transported, and consumed by fish and other marine life, including the potential effects on human health.