Editor’s Note: The Climate Action Coalition of the Wood River Valley has been on a month’s long journey to address the use of plastic. One member—Sue Peterson—decided to research the health implications of plastic. Here’s what she found:

BY SUE PETERSON

The first company to ever sell fully synthetic plastic – the Bakelite Corp, established in 1922 – advertised it as “The Material Of A Thousand Uses.”

It had that right: Today beyond the plates we eat from, the furniture we sit on and the toys our kids play with, there is plastic in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the food we eat, and even in the lifesaving medical equipment in our hospitals. 

And now, more than anywhere else,  plastic is in our packaging, encasing everything from laundry detergent to prescription pills, from our Amazon boxes to the beverages we drink.

Why is that a problem?  Reliable research now shows that tiny bits of that plastic-- from micro to nano sized bits--are found  in our food, drinking water, the air we breathe  and, yes, in our bodies.

Thousands of chemicals are used to make plastic do all the things it can do and these are even more of a health problem than plastic’s base of fossil fuel.  These added chemicals interfere with hormones involved in reproduction and have been found in sperm, ovaries, breastmilk and fetuses.  They may also be involved in the 40 percent increase in obesity since the 70s and earlier puberty in girls.

In light of these findings, we should be considerably worried about the onslaught of plastics in our food, personal care products and clothes.

While it’s practically impossible to eliminate plastic from modern life, there are steps we can each take to cut back on their health impact:

Do: Drink tap water. It has been tested for safety much more recently than your bottled water.

Do not:  Rely on bottled water

Do:  Heat food on the stove or in the microwave in glass or metal

Do not:  Microwave food in plastic

Do:  Buy and store food in glass, silicone, or metal containers

Do not:  Store food in plastic

Do:  Wash and eat fresh food--organic and not in plastic when possible  

Do not:  Rely on processed food or food wrapped in plastic

Do:  Vacuum and dust with a damp rag regularly

Do not:  Allow dust to accumulate on household surfaces. Micro/nano plastics love dust

Do:  Work with others in your community to help make bigger changes

Do not:  Assume that your impact is limited by what you do in your daily life.  Work to legislate changes in plastic production and packaging.  Join a local group working on these issues.

To learn more or to get involved, visit https://www.cacwrv.org. Or, email CACWRV@gmail.com.