Babies are pooping plastic
Our system is sick--how we can heal
A recent study found tiny plastic particles in the feces of every infant tested—ten times more plastic than in adult feces. The news is horrifying, but not so surprising, given that scientists have long known that infants and children take in more environmental contaminants. Small children breathe and eat more per pound of body weight than adults, and they also crawl around on the ground and put things in their mouths, increasing their exposures.
The plastic found in the highest amounts was polyethylene terephthalate, known as polyester, and used nearly everywhere—in clothing, upholstery, carpets, drapes, and sheets. The same plastic also makes soft drink and water bottles.
Another new study found that an additive in plastic called phthalates, found in the bodies of nearly everyone, may contribute to 100,000 early deaths every year in the U.S. among people aged 55 to 64.
The peer-reviewed papers add to the growing body of evidence that no place on Earth is free of plastic; we all breathe and eat a rain of invisible plastic fallout, with potentially serious health consequences.
Doctors refer to a sickness that affects the entire body as “systemic.” Like climate pollution, plastic pollution is a systemic crisis that requires global solutions. The two are related—plastic comes from the same fossil fuels that power cars and electric plants—and producing plastic spews huge amounts of climate pollution into the atmosphere. There is also a third global crisis the world must address if we are to solve these problems: systemic racism and inequity.
What made the world’s wasteful fossil-fuel based economy possible for so long was the ability to dump the resulting pollution and contamination onto the bodies and communities of those with the fewest resources to resist.
As a result, we have “sacrifice zones,” where polluting fossil-based industries like plastic cause high rates of sickness and death in surrounding communities, often those with low wealth and communities of color. (The United Nations office of Human Rights this year called for an end to environmental racism in one such zone, Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.)
But now, the reach of our global technologies has interlinked us all and upended old power relations. We all exist in some form of sacrifice zone. What if wealthier, white communities had refused to accept this status quo decades ago? What if we had said no—no one should live in a sacrifice zone? Industry might have been forced to develop safer, less polluting alternatives to oil, gas and plastic much sooner. After all, electric cars have existed since 1832.
How do we now go about healing our sick system? One critical step is limiting money in politics so that the super-wealthy don’t get to set the agenda. This would likely help advance policies to address wealth inequality, which has been rising globally but is most stark in the U.S. Rich countries who profited off fossil fuels need to do much more to help those bearing the brunt of the harms. And, we need to finally hold polluters accountable for the damage they do, instead of letting them blame others, like us.
None of this is a mystery, but that doesn’t make it easy. The climate summit in Glasgow just ended with a pact “urging” rich countries to increase funding to help poorer countries adapt to climate changes. Huge credit goes to the activists from all over the world demanding climate reparations—they made this issue a centerpiece of the negotiations.
Countries have consistently failed to meet these obligations in the past, and climate and environmental justice will require continued collective pressure. The struggle in the U.S. Congress over climate and social safety net measures highlights the difficulty. It may take decades of effort to shift the balance of our global capitalist system toward people instead of profits. As the great poet and activist Audre Lorde wrote “revolution is not a one-time event.” And it is our lives—all life—that is at stake.
Allison Cobb is the author of Plastic: An Autobiography