COnsequences

Plastics are toxic items

Indeed, there is a growing scientific consensus, that plastic poses serious threats to human health and the environmental well being. While some chemicals in plastics have been identified to have an impact on human health, like bisphenol-A (BPA), there is a genuine concern that our plastic policies may not be able to handle and identify the problems posed by plastics accurately and efficiently. The common consumer is frequently unable to recognise plastic types associated with health risks. Polycarbonate is labelled under the recycling code #7 (others), thereby it is hard to identify which products are made of polycarbonate. Polycarbonate contains BPA. Further, the infamous PET bottles are known to emit after a period of time acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is highly suspected and very likely to be carcinogenic (causes cancer), though there is still no hard evidence for that. Looking at all plastic, the most criticised plastic is recycling code #3 (PVC). In fact, it even made itself a nickname as “the Poison Plastic”. PVC stands for Polyvinyl chloride. The EPA classified it as a human carcinogen and stated that short term exposure sometimes results in damage to the central nervous system and long term exposure may cause damage to the liver and to the central nervous system. Further, it causes liver cancer.