Thank you so much for this post, Jill. I have now devoted a huge portion of my free time outside of my full-time OBGYN practice to lecturing about plastics, pregnancy, and health. We also started www.psnap.org, to train physicians and scientists in communication on this topic. I will say.... the skepticism I experience when speaking about environmental medicine, to fellow OBGYNs, is astonishing, as if it's not a "real" factor impacting health. But that starts in medical school, where environmental exposures are not emphasized, where the history of thalidomide and lead poisoning gets a few minutes of lecture time, which is amazing when you think of it, because fossil fuels have determined [insert waving hand] pretty much everything you see in the built environment, including all the plastics. Thank you so much for this column, and agree, I would like to see Democrats back to being against corporate control of our public policy.
Jill, Thank you. Important. I share your frustration in trying to avoid plastic. What I think would help are studies on which kinds of plastics shed the most particles. Plastics come in all sorts of kinds (one reason why recycling is difficult) and they must break down at different rates. Maybe tupperware is tough and relatively stable compared to say...saran wrap. Of course policy to limit production and use is the best but while pushing for that it would be good to know which kinds are the most important to avoid. I have never heard of this kind study. Since you are in touch with Prof. Enck, perhaps she knows of such? or could even commission someone to do that? Also -- Merry Happy!!
Democrats these days mostly don’t even discuss climate change while the world is warming in general and it’s getting worse with all the carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere slowly but surely, have to agree here. It’s going to impact us all, plastics too disposed in the ocean as you mentioned but in general…a problem not being addressed, which has everything to do with most having corporate donors (Yglesias’ recent article says it all from the NYTimes, “embrace big oil” and also “AI is good for everyone” when both signal he’s bought to the highest bidder as an influencer himself now).
Republicans otoh just outright deny it exists, and Trump got rid of a center focused on it naturally as they don’t care what happens until it ends up affecting them (by which time it is too late to do anything).
Something has to be done, period, it’s not something we can just keep our heads in the sand and hope works out at the rate climate change is accelerating.
Jill, thank you for this interview. My husband and I try to avoid plastic also, and it’s tough. No matter what we do, 100% avoidance is impossible.
Thank you so much for this post, Jill. I have now devoted a huge portion of my free time outside of my full-time OBGYN practice to lecturing about plastics, pregnancy, and health. We also started www.psnap.org, to train physicians and scientists in communication on this topic. I will say.... the skepticism I experience when speaking about environmental medicine, to fellow OBGYNs, is astonishing, as if it's not a "real" factor impacting health. But that starts in medical school, where environmental exposures are not emphasized, where the history of thalidomide and lead poisoning gets a few minutes of lecture time, which is amazing when you think of it, because fossil fuels have determined [insert waving hand] pretty much everything you see in the built environment, including all the plastics. Thank you so much for this column, and agree, I would like to see Democrats back to being against corporate control of our public policy.
Jill, Thank you. Important. I share your frustration in trying to avoid plastic. What I think would help are studies on which kinds of plastics shed the most particles. Plastics come in all sorts of kinds (one reason why recycling is difficult) and they must break down at different rates. Maybe tupperware is tough and relatively stable compared to say...saran wrap. Of course policy to limit production and use is the best but while pushing for that it would be good to know which kinds are the most important to avoid. I have never heard of this kind study. Since you are in touch with Prof. Enck, perhaps she knows of such? or could even commission someone to do that? Also -- Merry Happy!!
Democrats these days mostly don’t even discuss climate change while the world is warming in general and it’s getting worse with all the carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere slowly but surely, have to agree here. It’s going to impact us all, plastics too disposed in the ocean as you mentioned but in general…a problem not being addressed, which has everything to do with most having corporate donors (Yglesias’ recent article says it all from the NYTimes, “embrace big oil” and also “AI is good for everyone” when both signal he’s bought to the highest bidder as an influencer himself now).
Republicans otoh just outright deny it exists, and Trump got rid of a center focused on it naturally as they don’t care what happens until it ends up affecting them (by which time it is too late to do anything).
Something has to be done, period, it’s not something we can just keep our heads in the sand and hope works out at the rate climate change is accelerating.