[Puts]

Yes. Plastic often in them self contain endocrine disrupting or even cancerous chemicals but also plastic when released in to water has proven to bind itself to different toxins.For anyone interested in this subject I can recommend the book Plastic - A toxic love story by Susan Freinkel.

[im3w1l]

That is bad. But how much bad is it? Are we getting endocrine disruptors and toxins in worrying doses from plastics?

[elicash]

The real question is what we do in the face of uncertainty.

I'll use two comparisons, one positive and one negative for fairness sake. Before we knew that there wasn't much COVID spread in schools, did it make sense to close them just based on the uncertainty involved? Here's an example from the other end: Before we knew for sure leaded gasoline was a bad idea, should it have been banned? The impact of all the lead, particularly on children, was incredibly damaging and had lifelong effects that continued after the science was in.

Obviously, you want to take action based on data. But before we've got enough information to know, what do you do? I'd imagine the risk analysis has something to do with the rate at which micro plastics are being introduced and how far we are from an answer.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. For example, it could be that items that cause the most issues are taxed a bit more to slow the growth of this potential issue. (Not suggesting that specifically; I don't know enough to say if action should be weaker or more severe.)

[Puts]

I guess future will tell. An interesting thing from the book mentioned is that how toxic something is is not only about the amount we are exposed to, but also at what stage in life. Apparently premature babies have higher cancer rate later in life because they where exposed to these endocrine disruptors from intubation at such a sensitive period in their development.