Think you don’t use a lot of plastic or that plastic is an issue that doesn’t concern you?  Well, think again.

The use of  BPA, or bisphenol A, is back in the news. Don’t know what that is?  It started out as an artificial sex hormone that is used to give plastic added strength!

B.P.A. is  an additive commonly used in the manufacture of plastic water, baby bottles, food and beverage can linings, and dental sealants.

Developmental biologist at the University of Missouri, Dr. Frederick vom Saal, found that B.P.A. mimics naturally occurring estrogen. “These hormones control the development of the brain, the reproductive system and many other systems in the developing fetus,” said vom Saal.

Some critics have concluded that exposure to B.P.A. poisoning increases the risk of the womb to certain cancers, impede on fertility, and may contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.

It should be noted that as we have increased our use of plastics many times over since the 60′s that there has also been an increase in the risks noted above.  Coincidence?  I think not.  The only studies conducted to find a causal link have been funded by the plastics industry.  It should not come as a surprise then, that the plastics industry which produced 700 billion pounds of the stuff last year, hasn’t been able to find a link.

If you want to make a difference, here are your first two challenges. Both require you to take an inventory of your personal plastic usage.

• Go into every room of your house and see where you find plastic.  Explore your refrigerator, your kitchen cabinets, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, and garage or storage areas. Look in every room and take note.  Don’t forget your kids notebooks or your office supplies including pens, paper clips.
  

• For the next week save every piece of plastic you use.  Be sure you have enough room to store it; and don’t forget include more than your water bottles. If you bought meat, cookies, shampoo, aspirin,  dog food, batteries, there’s a plastic associated with that purchase.  You need to count fast food containers, straws, covers on coffee cups, etc.
  

Once you take your own inventory, you may be surprised as to how much plastic you really use and never thought about.  Then ask yourself how you dispose of all this plastic.  If you are not recycling and reusing, you are part of the problem.

Next time you put that plastic cup, or bottle to your lips, ask yourself if there isn’t a better way.

This is such an important issue, please pay this message forward and consider a donation of time and talent to the Ocean Keepers cause.  We can do this!

The numbers are staggering . . . mind numbing . . . almost impossible to comprehend.

We are facing an ecological disaster of immense proportions. This is a disaster of our own making, one that could have been prevented if not predicted with precision.

Let’s start with just a few facts. Every piece of plastic that has ever been produced and has not been re-cycled (less than 2%) still exists . . . all of it. According to a recent article in Salon, every year Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they’ve been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It’s equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil.

Forget about inflating your cars tires . . . stop throwing away all those plastic bags you use for a minuscule amount of time and then toss.

Plastic bags are killing us

The most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, the lowly plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it. The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. They’re made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recent study found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin.

And there’s more.

A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility…and worse.

There are signs that plastic pollution is doing more than blighting the scenery; it is also making its way into the food chain. Some of the most obvious victims are the dead seabirds that have been washing ashore in startling numbers, their bodies packed with plastic: things like bottle caps, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, and colored scraps that, to a foraging bird, resemble baitfish.

( One animal dissected by Dutch researchers contained 1,603 pieces of plastic.) And the birds aren’t alone. All sea creatures are threatened by floating plastic, from whales down to zooplankton.

There’s a basic moral horror in seeing the pictures: a sea turtle with a plastic band strangling its shell into an hourglass shape; a humpback towing plastic nets that cut into its flesh and make it impossible for the animal to hunt. More than a million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die in the North Pacific each year, either from mistakenly eating this junk or from being ensnared in it and drowning.

We are better than this!

Next time . . . look for “how did we get here?” & “taking your own plastic inventory!”