17-05-2014, 04:47 PM
Toxic Plastics --- Fact or Myth?
FACT OR MYTH?
When you eat or drink things stored in plastic, is plastic incorporated into you?
MYTH
Plastic does not seem to affect human health; HOWEVER, it can dangerously effect other animal life and alter the environmental (air, water, and soil) causing hazardous pollution when it is dumped into the environment.
Can Plastics Kill?
Birds and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the aquatic environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food.
Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut.
Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.
Plastics: Friend or Foe?
Plastic is ubiquitous in our lives because it is convenient and Relatively inexpensive. It is convenience comes from being lightweight and its ability to absorb impact shock without breaking, which on its own merit, is hard to argue with.
Plastics are so versatile in use that their impacts the environment are extremely wide ranging, posing serious challenge for disposal
ALTERNATIVES
Plastic bags take between 15 to 1000 years to degrade.
The chemical pollutants released from them are a Serious Threat to be Tackled.
Designing eco-friendly, biodegradable plastics is the need of
the hour. Though partially biodegradable plastics have been
developed and used, completely biodegradable plastics based on
renewable starch rather than petrochemicals have only recently been developed and are in the early stages of commercialization.
Paper , Cloth, Jute, Cane, etc.,
are the most preferable but still
controversial