Bernard Meyerson via Business Insider: Technology is perhaps the greatest agent of change in the modern world. While never without risk, technological breakthroughs promise innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges…
Plastics
If you saw our documentary about bottled water Tapped, you’ll know that BPA is not the only toxic chemical in plastics. The Los Angeles Times reports on a new study linking Bisphenol…
Old Poll Our first weekly poll was a relative success. In light of our soon-to-be released Boredom, we asked your opinions on one of the issues raised in the film. It seems the majority…
More Unacceptable Levels news: A scientist has connected infertility in pigs to compounds in plastic bags, warns National Geographic: A strange catastrophe struck Spain’s pig farmers in the spring of 2010. On 41 farms…
Anyone who saw the documentary Tapped knows that ingesting BPAs and phtalates is hazardous to your health. CNN reports on yet another study highlighting the risks, this one suggesting fertility problems: If…
Consider going light on makeup? Causation has not been shown, but a strong correlative link has been found between diabetes and level of exposure to the phthalates that seep from synthetic household…
Is this the answer to the ever-growing plastic scourge on our planet? From co.exist: The Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on earth. One of them, carried home…
Via ScienceDaily: Exposure in the womb to bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical used to make plastic containers and other consumer goods — is associated with behavior and emotional problems in young…
Taken from a 1940 issue of Fortune, a rendering of a map of an imaginary future continent, ‘Synthetica’, composed of synthetic materials and plastic debris. This is our magical future. Via Strange…
The only surprise here is that after years of delaying tactics by the plastics and chemical industries, the U.S. Government finally decided to tell its citizens that two very common compounds –…
Pepsi is trumpeting its creation of a plastic bottle made entirely from plant matter. Great — now we’ll be filling our landfills with plastic forever, even after we run out of oil….
The truth of the matter is, plastics are poisonous. Just giving up bottles of water and their BPAs is not nearly enough to avoid the health risks from plastic products, according to…
For all you macho men who couldn’t give a crap about your carbon footprint, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and other problems associated with bottled water, maybe this will help you get…
Bryan Walsh writing for the Ecocentric Blog at Time Magazine: It’s used almost everywhere. It’s in almost all of us. It does weird things to rodents and it may be doing weird…
Ira Flatow reports on NPR’s Science Friday Podcast: Researchers have made plastic nanoparticles that can partially mimic the behavior of natural antibodies in the bloodstream of a living animal. Writing in the…
If this becomes real, maybe we can stop feeling so guilty about all those plastic water bottles. That’s a big ‘if,’ though, so get off the bottle for now… Story from Popular…
Last week I posted a story about Tapped filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig’s Get Off The Bottle tour. Stephanie and co-producer Sarah Olson came by the disinformation NYC offices and I asked her about her appearance on Fox Business Network’s John Stossel show the night before. I feared the worst after reading Stossel’s blog post in which he wrote: “On my FBN show, tonight at 8pm ET, I’ll confront director Stephanie Soechtig about the myths she’s pushing.”
Here’s the confrontation – who do you think comes out on top? My vote’s with Stephanie, although she didn’t have a chance to add information about some of the other problems of bottled water, such as the massive plastic garbage patches now floating in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
For those paying attention, calls for removal of plastics from our food and water and elsewhere in our household and workplace environments have been getting a whole lot louder recently and will receive worldwide attention during World Water Week in September. For those who liked Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff, she’s made a new film, The Story of Bottled Water:
The message is starting to go mainstream. TIME Magazine recently highlighted “The Perils of Plastic.” Here’s what they have to say about Bisphenol A (BPA), the type of plastic used to bottle water:
What It Is: A chemical used in plastic production
Found In: Water bottles, baby bottles, plastic wraps, food packaging
Health Hazards: The government’s National Toxicology Program has concluded that there is some concern about brain and behavioral effects…
Why don’t we just start eating fish made out of plastic? Simplify the food chain. Eric S. Page writes on NBC San Diego:
Scientists exploring the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have made another disturbing discovery, according to a published report.
The UCSD scientists returned from their trip to the Northern Pacific in August, bringing back tales, pictures and more than 100 samples from a blob of degraded plastic that is reportedly the size of Texas or bigger.
Now, in addition to the large concentration of plastic, Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers have determined some of the fish in the area are eating it. “We did indeed find some indisputable pieces of plastic in their guts,” Pete Davison, a Scripps graduate student dissecting the fish, told the voiceofsandiego.org.
From Daily Galaxy [Disinfo editor’s note: This story dates from Dec. 31, 2007 but appears still to be relevant. See also this report from 2008.]: Since stories have started surfacing more recently,…
Meg Kissinger reports in the Journal Sentinel: U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for…
John Wargo writes on Yale Environment 360: Since 1950, plastics have quickly and quietly entered the lives and bodies of most people and ecosystems on the planet. In the United States alone,…