Plastics

A beach near Leogane, Haiti, about 40 miles west of Port au Prince. Some of the trash is local, most washes in from Port au Prince

I've heard a number of reports in the last several months about the pervasiveness of plastics in our lives, our ecosystems, and our bodies. There is no question that in Haiti, plastic waste is a huge disposal problem. To find out that besides the obvious problems, plastics are being implicated in cancers and immune disorders terrifies me.

Here is a link to one article:

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2209

The NPR report I heard can be found online at

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/19/135245835/our-toxic-love-hate-relationship-with-plastics

and an article by the same researcher can be found at

http://www.susanfreinkel.com/books_Plastic.html

From article:

"Freinkel’s conclusion? We cannot stay on our plastic-paved path. And we don’t have to. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can’t seem to live without."