Group seeks to end use of plastics

Compiled by Elaine Garrison
Communications Team

Earth Day is celebrated every 22 April. It’s followed closely by Arbor Day, which falls on the last Friday in April. 

For Earth Day 2024, EarthDay.org has committed to end plastics, demanding a sixty-percent reduction in production by 2040 for the sake of human and planetary health. 

Among the organization’s recent efforts are reports on “Babies and Plastics” and “Reforestation,” distributed as information for Earth Day. 

More than 100 studies, reports, and articles were reviewed. The research suggests that health implications presented by microplastics and their additive chemicals extend to children before and after birth. Evidence indicates microplastics can interrupt maternal-fetal communication and potentially damage DNA. 

Some studies report links between microplastics and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Reports have linked microplastics to autism and other endocrine-disruption issues that can (among other things) manifest as early-onset puberty. Also, an association with cancers includes the prostate gland of fetuses. 

Earthday.org is calling for the United Nations Environmental Programme to recognize the health implications of exposure to microplastics, plastics, and additive chemicals in the Global Plastic Treaty—alongside a sixty-percent reduction in plastic production by 2040—for the good of children’s health. 

More than twenty basic types of synthetic plastic are made with petrochemicals and varying combinations of more than 10,000 chemicals. Practically everything we use in the modern world has some plastic component: furniture, microbeads in toiletries, tires, single-use water bottles, medical equipment, vitamin capsules, and much more. Even our clothes contain plastics. It virtually is impossible to avoid plastics or microplastics. 

Evidence (from a pilot study) suggests babies, more than any demographic group, might be more susceptible to ingesting microplastics. Researchers discovered that median levels of some microplastics were more than ten times higher in baby feces than in that of adults. Is it surprising, given that their toys, clothes, cribs, playgrounds, even breast milk, all can contain, leach, or shed microplastics? 

In addition, babies have two key developmental stages. Both appear to play pivotal roles in the higher levels of microplastics that early research is discovering in babies’ feces. First, babies taste-test their world, which often means chewing on plastics. Then, babies crawl on the ground, potentially encountering household dust that contains microplastics. 

Babies and infants appear to inhale and ingest microplastic particles at nearly every stage of development. That’s why Earthday.org is calling for the United Nations Environmental Programme to recognize the health implications of exposure to microplastics, plastics, and additive chemicals in the Global Plastic Treaty—alongside a sixty-percent reduction in plastic production by 2040—for the good of children’s health. 

Alarm Sounds 

Forests worldwide support vast ecosystems, with many species reliant on them for survival. Forests also are extremely important to humanity, providing health benefits, income, food, and more. Despite all these benefits, forests have been disappearing at alarming rates for far too long. 

Reforestation is an effective method to fight climate change while maintaining the many benefits forests provide. These ten facts highlight some social and environmental benefits forests provide, with statistics on deforestation and reforestation. 

• Worldwide forest cover shrinks an average of 11,613,952 acres per year. 
• A tree must live at least ten to twenty years to meaningfully aid the environment. 
• Forests are home to an estimated eighty percent of the world’s terrestrial species. 
• Throughout 2015–2020, 24,710,538 acres of trees were removed from forests around the world each year. Only 12,355,269 acres of trees were planted each year throughout the same period. 
• Forests are extremely important to humanity’s health and well-being. They provide tens of millions of jobs, are a vital part of the food chain, and supply more than 28,000 species of plants used in medicines. 
• A study found that urban-reforestation projects improved the mental health of workers who could view green spaces from their offices. 
• Forests play a vital role in regulating water cycles and soil quality. 

• Increasing green cover by ten percent in cities and towns could reduce the surface temperature of the area by 2.2°C. 
• Plants in forests release phytoncides, antimicrobial compounds. Studies have found exposure to phytoncides can reduce stress, boost the immune system, and lower blood pressure and the heart rate. 
• Two-thousand years ago, eighty percent of Western Europe was covered by forests. Today, forests cover only thirty-four percent. 

Sources for this information are available on EarthDay.org.