Plastics, plastic chemicals, and microplastics: multiple harms to health Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are everywhere. These tiny particles—formed by abrasion, fragmentation, and open burning of plastics—are found in the ocean, the Arctic, Himalayan glaciers, air, ...

#Plastics, plastic #chemicals, and #microplastics: multiple harms to #health

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

🚨 Nice, shiny new proof soon to be published in the Ocean Yearbook

Marine Plastic Pollution: What will happen to the Global Plastics Treaty?

#PlasticsTreaty
#PlasticPollution
@dalhousieu.bsky.social

Iran war puts focus on petrochemicals used in numerous products and a driver of climate change The Iran war is highlighting global dependence on petrochemicals. The oil- and gas-based chemicals are used in products from plastics to fertilizers.

Just as the closure of the #StraitofHormuz offers us a chance to accelerate the transition away from #fossilfuels, it also offers us a chance to ditch #plastics and other #petrochemicals. apnews.com/article/clim...

The Illusion of Safety—Again How omission, not evidence, does the quiet work of reassurance

Bruce Lanphear's commentary on industry-funded science comms made me wonder how medical journals address what ISN'T being said. @jama.com @natmed.nature.com @ameracadpeds.bsky.social @thelancet.com @nejm.org @plosmedicine.org @annalsofim.bsky.social @bmj.com
blanphear.substack.com/p/the-illusi...

Detoxing my life, resentfully Some thoughts on plastic, power, and personal responsibility.

I've decided to do a stupid plastic detox, but I'm going to infuse my journey with maximum spite over the fact that the only reason I have to do this is because the government has completely abdicated its responsibility to protect public health, biodiversity, and the climate.

Follow along!

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so large it is home to dozens of species of life, prompting debate over cleanup efforts The Great Pacific Garbage Patch now holds tens of thousands of tons of plastic pieces, along with dozens of species that call it "home."

Unsurprisingly, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is growing—and so is plastic production and its trail of toxic pollution. #PlasticPollutes #BreakFreeFromPlastic www.earth.com/news/great-p...

The way people state a casual guess/ hunch/ paranoid suspicion/ accusation as a fact, and the way that has become normalized and widespread, is how a lot of people participate in truth decay. Here, there, and everywhere. Across the political spectrum.

Thrilled to receive these hard copies of our new book in the mail today. Please send me a DM with your email addy if you like an an ePub version.

Microplastics and Nanoplastics in the Environment

books.rsc.org/books/edited...

#Microplastics
#Nanoplastics
#Environment
@dalhousieu.bsky.social

Plastic Pollution Is Bad Enough. Burning It Can Be Even Worse. In places like Indonesia, plastic refuse is often burned in unregulated low-tech furnaces that pose grave health risks.

Burning plastic is not a solution to the plastics crisis. It just creates more pollution. #PlasticPollutes #BreakFreeFromPlastic
undark.org/2026/04/10/b...

An artistic photo of plastic from one Sable Shearwater chick laid out in a series of concentric circles on a black velvet background. Each circle has larger plastic with forks and tetra-pak lids in and full bottlecaps in the outermost layer.

Sable Shearwaters aren't an outlier—they're a preview. Chick maximum plastic loads rose from ~200 pieces in 2011 to ~900 in 2025. And the plastics treaty has stalled.

More: adriftlab.org/news/the-can... 3/3

#ornithology #PlasticPollution #WildOz #seabirds

A conceptual graph showing the amount of ingested plastics on the x axis, and response on the y axis. There is a sigmoidal curve with "Species A" at the low end, "Species B" near the inflection point, and Sable Shearwaters labelled near the top (high ingested plastics and a high response)

Their vulnerable biology is shared across hundreds of seabird species. We don't see harm from plastics elsewhere often because the ocean hides it — carcasses last ~8 days, <5% wash ashore. Or we just haven't looked.

Absence of evidence ≠ evidence of absence. 2/3

The head of a Sable Shearwater being held, illuminated with a headtorch light

New paper with @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social in ES&T: We know Sable Shearwaters show measurable harm from plastic ingestion but this isn't just a story about one species. 🧵 1/3

📄 doi.org/10.1021/acs....

Just heard your interview on the “Shortwave” podcast. Congratulations on your book!

One cavil: not all the plastics used in health care are necessary, or must be single-use. Indeed, there is a coalition of doctors & other health-care experts contesting some of the myths surrounding that issue.

Brazil creates the South Atlantic's largest marine park | Conservation International Conservation International helped secure a million-hectare marine park, two decades in the making.

This is how it's done!

"a core reserve where fishing is banned outright, surrounded by a buffer zone that allows some artisanal fishing — designed to allow local fishing communities to retain their traditional livelihoods"

www.conservation.org/news/brazil-...

I'm are pleased to share our latest study examining an overlooked dimension of #microplastic exposure pathways. In this study, we provide the first international evidence that cigarette tobacco itself—independent of filters—contains microplastics at measurable levels.
doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

Plastic Inc — how the defining material of the modern age ended up trashing the planet Beth Gardiner’s angry, well-researched book investigates a profit-driven industry and the environmental debts it imposes on generations

“In her investigation of the scope and impact of plastics, Gardiner doesn’t hold back. Plastic Inc is an angry book: timely, well researched and full of facts that make you furious.”

Rosie Boycott reviews Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash Our Future by @bethgardiner.bsky.social

Plastic particles not only inhibit photosynthesis for terrestrial plants, also marine & freshwater algae. Means: more CO2, les food production/security. "... findings underscore urgency of integrating plastic mitigation into global hunger/sustainability initiatives."

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

we argue that plastics are integral to ultra-processed foods as a globalized product - while this might seem obvious, it is one that is rarely made in either the environmental politics or food systems literature

Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of the global plastics pollution crisis - Nature Food The plastic waste generated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is a key driver of the global plastics crisis. Recognizing the integral role of plastics in UPF production is essential to developing a more socio-ecological perspective on these food products. This Comment identifies the linkages between the rise of UPFs and the rise of plastic packaging, calling for a renewed research agenda.

new comment by myself, @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @katesievert.bsky.social @kimanastasiou.bsky.social and Joe Yates in @natfood.nature.com on ultra-processed foods and the global plastics pollution crisis

On #WorldHealthDay, we want to highlight the potential impact of micro and nanoplastics on human health via inflammation, oxidative stress, and the delivery of toxic chemicals or pathogens.
For a comprehensive overview, see our Strategic technology and service needs: zenodo.org/records/1938...

Agreed. Goals would be minimal and simple-composition plastics in food-grade packaging for absolute necessary use. Fugitive plastics are virtually inevitable, so reducing those and minimising release of any persistent additives would be ideal.

Yes. But also going to be problematic if that food packaging enters the environment when discarded and becomes microplastics via exposure to UV and mechanical stress…. and possibly picking up other toxicants

Towards a ‘theory of change’ for ocean plastics: a socio-oceanography approach to the global challenge of plastic pollution - Microplastics and Nanoplastics Socio-oceanography is an emerging field which mobilises insights from natural and social sciences to explore the inter-connectedness of societal relationships with the ocean and to adopt a holistic ap...

Towards a ‘theory of change’ for ocean plastics: a socio-oceanography approach to the global challenge of plastic pollution

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#plasticpollution

Microplastics are everywhere — even in the labs studying them. That’s a problem for research

The variety of additives and environmental fates that the overarching category 'microplastics' might encompass likely means a precautionary approach is warranted...

Is that 50g of material that would be 'fresh' from production or collected from (temporary) compartments in (which) environment...?

e.g. I've seen 50g as 'safe' for ingesting polyethylene, but with no time frame (?!). Per day, month, or year? And is that HDPE or LDPE? Coloured or clear? UV stabilisers added? Rigidity enhanced? Entirely recycled nurdles or food grade film?

I'm trying to convey that 'microplastics' could be many things and not just one kind of stuff that's 'safe' to ingest up to a threshold at which harms will start to occur.

There are lots of different agricultural plastic products on the market, but we can't test them all. Science requires that we focus on specific compositions so that we can conduct thorough and controlled experiments🔬.

An investigation of attitudes toward plastics in four countries—The public is concerned and wants solutions The public in the Netherlands, Australia, India, and the Philippines is surveyed to examine public attitudes toward plastics and the potential acceptance of mitigation and management strategies. Resul...

An investigation of attitudes toward plastics in four countries—The public is concerned and wants solutions

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

#PlasticPollution
#PlasticWaste