By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) last week released a report, Plastic & Health; The Hidden Cost of a Plastic Planet.

Its conclusion: “Plastic is a Global Health Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight.”

Lifecycle Approach

The principal contribution of the report: it takes a comprehensive look at the health impacts of plastic throughout its life cycle. This begins with the extraction and transport of fossil feedstocks for plastic, continues onto refining and production of plastic, creating consumer products and packaging, fostering toxic releases from plastic waste management. Waste disposal isn’t the final stage either, as afterwards, there’s the fragmentation and creation of microplastics to consider, as well as cascading exposures as plastic degrades, and finally, ongoing and continuing environmental exposures over the hundreds of years plastic remains before it disintegrates completely..

This report breaks new ground, as thus far, there’s been little systematic attention to the collective problems created by the ubiquitous and increasing use of plastic throughout its lifecycle – from when the fossil fuel is extracted from the ground, to final waste disposal – and what happens to plastic that finds its way into the environment:

To date, discussions of the health and environmental impacts of plastic have usually focused on specific moments in the plastic lifecycle: during use and after disposal. However, the lifecycle of plastic and its related human health impacts extends far beyond these two stages in both directions: upstream, during feedstock extraction, transport, and manufacturing, and downstream, when plastic reaches the environment and degrades into micro- and nanoplastics. Increasing research and investigation are providing new insights into the hidden, pervasive impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on human health and the environment (report, p.6).

I encourage readers to take a brief look at the entire report, which only runs to 75 pp. I warn you, however, that it’s deeply depressing. In common with many others who’ve written about or studied the plastics problem, I realize that so far, I’ve limited my focus on plastic pollution only to specific stages of this lifecycle – largely waste reduction and waste management. What the CIEL report’s comprehensive approach reveals is a far, far worse catastrophe unfolding as the potential cumulative health risks of effects of plastic are considered throughout its life cycle. A too-narrow focus on one stage or even several in that of that cycle underestimates the full scope of the problem.

Don’t Drink That Water!

Just a couple of things I thought I’d mention from the report.

Microplastics contaminate the water we drink, the food we eat, even the salt we use to season our meals:

The evidence that humans are increasingly exposed to microplastics is mounting. Recent reports suggest that microplastics are entering the human body through the water we drink, food we eat, and air we breathe. In 2018, a study from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency of Austria analyzed stool samples from participants across Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Austria. Every sample tested positive for the presence of microplastics and up to nine di erent types of plastic resins were detected. On average, the researchers found 20 microplastic particles per 10g of stool. The study demonstrated that plastic reaches

the human gut and that all food chains are likely contaminated.202 Increasing evidence that human food and water sources are contaminated with microplastic will continue to shed light on the routes of exposure (p. 37).

Tap water is contaminated by micro plastics across the globe, according to a recent study by Orb Media cited in the CIEL report:

Researchers at Fredonia State University of New York analyzed 159 tap water samples from 14 countries, half from developed and half from developing nations. Of these samples, 81 percent showed particles ranging from 0 to 61 particles per liter. The results included an overall average of 5.45 particles per liter, with the US having the highest average (9.24 particles per liter) while EU nations had the four lowest averages. Water from more developed nations had a higher average density (6.85 par- ticles per liter) while the average density from developing nations was lower (4.26 particles

per liter). Ninety-eight percent of particles were fibers.203 (report, p. 37).