OP-ED: Toxic inaction on farm chemicals 

The Sunday Times says

When food tastes plastic, it probably is
.

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No one in their right mind would voluntarily eat plastic. But recent reports suggest that the average person unintentionally consumes a credit card’s worth of plastic – 5g – a week. This adds up to about 260g of plastic that a human being eats, drinks or breathes in a year. This figure, derived from the results of more than 50 studies, is a shocking indicator of just how much plastic waste has permeated the environment and contaminated the food chain. Photographs have gone viral in the past year of whales, birds and even deer dying from starvation after their digestive systems became clogged with plastic waste. The statistics suggest humans are now, slowly, poisoning themselves with plastic waste.

The numbers are sobering: 75 per cent of all plastic produced is waste, and 87 per cent of mismanaged waste leaks into the environment to pollute the water supply and the food chain as well. Microplastics – particles under 5mm in size – have been found in everything from drinking water and salt to seafood. Conservationists have worried about the impact of plastic waste on wildlife for a long time. Such concerns seem remote to most people living in cities far removed from oceans and the wilderness. But with recent studies highlighting how microplastics are now saturating the oceans and seeping into people’s diets, there is added impetus for people to change their reliance on, and use of, plastics.

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/st-editorial/when-food-tastes-plastic-it-probably-is

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