How Much Did You Say?

 After oil was discovered in the 1850s in Drake, Pennsylvania, we started finding lots of ways to use these hydrocarbons that were just sitting beneath the earth’s surface. One hydrocarbon product that has transformed the world is plastic. We’ve been using plastics for about 100 years, but its problems weren’t noticed until about 50 years ago, in the 1970s, shortly after the First Earth Day, April 22, 1970. This was also around when the movie The Graduate came out. In this insane and entertaining movie, Dustin Hoffman, a recent college graduate, was advised by the older generation to go into plastics, but not in an environmental sense.

Plastic found near Cass Park, Ithaca, NY, late April 2024.

Fast forward to 2005 when I was teaching Chemistry and Environmental Science. The problem of plastic pollution was not a lesson that raised the heads of the bean counters in Albany who wrote curriculum, or the local school administrators who never cared much about science. I don’t know why it takes so long for vital information to get into the school curriculum and/or to the general public, but I can guess: bureaucracy, lack of imagination, industry writing the government’s regs, lack of scientific studies which can be costly, and our inability to see things as they are. Maybe our plates are overloaded with disaster, and one more You shouldn’t do this, and everything will collapse.   

The term microplastics came into existence around 2004, and this might have been when scientists started questioning plastics impact on marine life. But what about plastic pollution in the human body?

Back in the 80s I became familiar with VOCs – volatile organic compounds – and I watched out for them. I knew VOCs were in the fake floors and carpets, and in the plastics used to store food.  There were times when I drank from a plastic water bottle that left me wondering: how long has this water been sitting in here, and under what temperatures?

While working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Underground Storage Tanks, it became clear to me that the government could not possibly test for every chemical compound, and under every circumstance. Too expensive and not enough time. Still when a tank or piping leaked, you’d want to know what compounds were in the gasoline so the hydrologists could model how far and fast the contaminants moved. But gasoline isn’t made-up of one hydrocarbon: it usually contains around 150, all of which have distinct chemical properties, some of which are hazardous to humans. And then there are the additives.

The strategy went like this. First, don’t drink/use contaminated water/soil; second, contain the contamination; third, remediate the contaminated water/soil; and lastly, either get rid of the gasoline station, or install alarm systems and corrosion-resistant tanks and piping. The good thing about hydrocarbons is that most bacteria in the ground love to feast on them, breaking them down into harmless water and carbon dioxide.

Plastics are different. They are man-made. There are no bacteria that love gorging on plastics, although more recently scientists have discovered microbes and fungi that have evolved to eat certain plastic types as a carbon source. The bonds of some plastic associating compounds are so strong and indestructible that they have been called Forever Chemicals. These are known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyls substances) and are found in many common products, such as cosmetics, food packaging, and non-stick cookware. Any product advertised as waterproof, stain or odor resistant, or flame retardant likely contains PFAS. Because of their indestructible nature these chemicals persist and accumulate in the environment, and we will forever be exposed to them until remediation methods are developed. Scientists are working on this.

NRDC

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, PFAS move relatively quickly through the environment, making “their contamination hard to contain.” Some are toxic at even “extremely low levels. . . and cause pollution at every stage of production.” There are over 5,000 types of PFAS chemicals. Although the industry was aware of some of plastic’s problems decades ago, this information was not disclosed to the U.S. EPA or the public. Does that get you mad? Haven’t we heard this story before?  

The U.S. EPA recently started to regulate PFAS in drinking water, and last month finalized drinking water standards for six different PFAS down to four parts per trillion (ppt). This is a very small amount, like a drop in an Olympic size swimming pool. These strict maximum contaminant levels demonstrate that even low doses are harmful to human health. These standards will be legally enforced and implemented over the next several years.

Where are the PFAS?

The PFAS are in clothes characterized as waterproof, stain-repellent and dirt repellent. Manufacturers are not required to disclose their appearance in a product. Assume your clothes contain them, NRDC says, unless manufactures state on their websites that their clothes are not made with PFAS. NRDC: “Levi Strauss & Co., Victoria's Secret, and Deckers Brands have already removed PFAS from their merchandise. Other major brands, like Ralph Lauren and Patagonia Inc., have set time-bound commitments to do the same . . . California passed a bill that phases out the chemicals in clothing and textiles sold in that state.”

An old t-shirt of mine, 100 percent cotton. Still useable.

PFAS are in the plastic takeout containers, pastry bags, paper plates, fast-food wrappers, fiber clamshells, carpets, curtains, fake wood, counter tops, non-stick cookware, cosmetics, and hygienic products like shampoo, toothbrushes, and dental floss. If plastics are in the water and the soil (in many cases they are) then they are in your food.

Where Else and How much?

A New York Times reporter recently tried to spend the day without using or touching plastic. He had something like 164 violations even though his clothes were made from natural fibers, and his hygienic products and food were plastic free. 

I became more attentive to this issue in January 2024 when I read an article that researchers had found up to 240,000 pieces of microplastics in plastic bottled water. In April a friend of mine, who does sustainability work, mentioned that we inhale/drink/eat/dermally absorb up to a credit card (five grams) of plastic a week. A week. That’s an average, according to a group of scientists who spoke on WXXI Rochester, a radio show broadcast on April 22, 2024.

One of the scientists, Dr. Samantha Romanick (who reduced her plastic intake 10 years ago) confirmed that there’s still a lot of work to be done in terms how plastic interacts in the body. No one has shown, for instance, if microplastics cross important barriers, like the gut barrier or the brain barrier; but microplastics have been found in the human heart and other internal organs.

PFAS are known endocrine disruptors. They interfere with hormones that regulate mood, body temperature, appetite, and have been shown to cause infertility, cancer, obesity, diabetes and birth defects.

We know that plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, but plastic does not break down chemically; a chemical breakdown or change would mean that the substance’s inherent properties change.    

There are no biodegradable plastics, however scientists are researching natural and engineered enzymes that appear to chemically breakdown, for instance, polyester fabric, which might be a feasible way to recycle mixed cotton-polyester clothes.   

 I was surprised to learn that one of the biggest producers of airborne microplastics are clothes dryers, while a large source of water-borne microplastic is gray water from your washing machine. The microplastics have to go somewhere: nothing leaves the earth except for what we shoot up into space (and sometimes, even some of that comes back down) and light gases like hydrogen or helium. Microplastics have even been found on the surface of Mars, left there by a few years ago by the Perseverance Rover. We have now polluted another planet.

Even the landfills, where an estimated 85 % of donated clothes and their by-products end up, were not built to last forever. A former supervisor of mine, a landfill expert, estimated a landfill’s lifespan to be about thirty years.

“It’s in everything,” Mike said, when I told him I was writing this. I know: why bother? Because you have to start somewhere.

Do Microplastics Leave The Body?

When I was grocery shopping a few days ago, I saw a neighbor shelving cans at Wegmans. Ithaca is a small town and Wegmans is one of the hot meeting venues. I told my friend I was writing a substack on microplastics, and she said, “They’ve found plastic in gall stones!”  

When I got home, I found a scientific study (NIH PubMed, April 2024) that reported the appearance of microplastics in human gallstones. Another recent study detected microplastics in human urine – good right? Plastic can leave the body? But bad, because plastic was also detected in kidneys. How much the human body excretes, and how to make the body excrete more, is still being studied. And then there’s the question: where does this excreted microplastic go?  

In Our Drinking Water  

The NRDC says you can ask your drinking water provider the PFAS/microplastics they test for and then ask them to “install treatments to remove PFAS.” Hmmm. We get our water from Bolton Point, so I sent a message to headquarters and within a few days, I got an Excel Spreadsheet. (Thank you, Glenn). Bolton Point tests for almost 30 PFAS, but has only been testing since November 2023. That’s not even a year. Many municipalities are not required to test for microplastics. California, which has always been an environmentally progressive state, passed a bill in 2022 (first state to do so) that regulates MPs in drinking water.

A study in Rochester, NY, that tested drinking water from source to sink (Hemlock lake to the drinking fountain at the University of Rochester Department of Biomedical Engineering) found microplastics accumulating in the drinking water as it starts to travel through the piping. Years ago municipalities replaced lead piping with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping, a plastic which is extremely toxic. It remains to be seen which piping is safer.

There are PFAS in our drinking water in Ithaca. You can install specific carbon filters (make sure to read the labels) that remove PFAS. Maybe that’s not a bad idea.

Limiting Exposure 

For myself, I have decided no more water in bottles unless it’s glass or my water bottle, which is metal. No more hot liquids and plastic, like the plastic that lines takeout coffee cups. That’s easy. I am more wary of hot food in takeout containers given everything I’ve read, especially about industry being unregulated. I wash my clothes in cold water, and I am judicious about washing my clothes. There is a new technology, which I haven’t tried, called Planet Care microfiber filter. You attach it to your washer where it collects microfibers and prevents them from entering the waste water stream.

I haven’t used a dryer for years, but I’ve always considered dryers to be a huge waste of energy, especially given the sun right outside my back door.  My attire is mostly jeans and T-shirts but recently, I have been checking labels; if a T-shirt is 100 percent cotton, then I will try to mend it.   

I try to store my food in glass containers. I limit seafood and wash my rice several times. And tea bags? These brands don’t contain plastic: Traditional Medicinals, Pukka, Numi Teas, Republic of Tea, Stash, Yogi, Organic India Tulsi Green Tea (my tea of choice) and loose-leaf teas. I got rid of the plastic-coated paper plates years ago and went with re-usable melamine ones. I haven’t done enough research on the melamine to decide what to do with them.

For the past fifteen years I’ve been washing my hair with a baking soda paste and using a cider vinegar rinse. This practice started after reading Michael Pollan’s books on foods. Not only did I start reading food labels, but shampoo and conditioner labels. All these chemicals in my hair, on my body, and some ending up in the lake: how could that be good for anyone?

I don’t wear makeup, but I do use sunscreen. I started brushing my teeth with that good old baking soda. The baking soda comes in a small cardboard box and is significantly cheaper than the toothpaste, and as far as I know, contains no microplastic.

Baking soda also guards the garlic in the vegetable garden.

Websites and an App

Poking around, I found at least a dozen websites – one being My Plastic Free Life – that list tips on reducing exposure. The author also loves baking soda. I’ve read stories about people who have tried to live a plastic-free life, and have come close, and I applaud their efforts, but for me, this isn’t possible. It is possible to limit my exposure, and limit what I give back to the environment.

The Clearya app allows you to scan a product’s bar code and tells you what products are safe and suggests safer products. It’s free. I’ve tried it and got an okay for McCornick’s chili powder. It’s a start. 

Recently, I watched with a trepidation as a woman my age was filling up a plastic water bottle. I said, “Did you know,” and before I could finish, she laughed, and said, “Yes, but glass is so much heavier!”

∞

It’s a strange world. I wasn’t expecting to find myself in Germany so soon again, but my older daughter, Anna, had a baby and because of that, and the husband with mono ordered to rest, I am back here, gazing down on a five-day-old baby.

The baby reaches her arms out in slow motion as if she is still in the womb, then settles them back, slowly, against the mattress at ear level. Sometimes she coos like a bird. She hiccups. She makes weird mechanical sounds. Her eyes are mostly slits and when she opens them, it’s not for long. Her pupils are dark and thin, and won’t be focusing much for a few months, and why should they? She is slowly acclimating herself to life on the outside. You don’t see many five-day-old babies because the parents are all about protecting the baby. They whisper around her and make sure she is always warm. They feed her and keep her clean. Their world right now is centered on that baby, and on doing no harm. Or as little harm as possible.

Anna is a biochemist and will be looking for a job soon. Like me, Anna is a label-reading environmentalist. We don’t always do the right thing, but we try. And I have one word for her when she renews her job search. Plastics.

I want to thank Dr. Samantha Romanick, microplastic reducer and researcher, for her invaluable comments and additions to this post.