[refurb]

This is the real question. I get the sense saying "we're consuming plastics" causes concern because plastics are generally demonized and looked upon as "bad".

But we consume a lot of stuff unintentionally. Fine sand is blown around and deposited on food that we consume. But sand is "natural" so it's ok. But it's really just silicon dioxide mixed with other random minerals. Is that a problem? We know inhaling silicon dioxide is bad for you, but eating it? It is an approved food additive.

[samus]

The term “plastics" contains a big bag of substances that have very different chemical structure and properties. We don't know what the long-term effects of many of these substances are. Stuff like Dioxins and friends are obviously bad, and still took a significant amount of time to root out. Plastics are everywhere now, so in case it turns out that more substances are bad, we are in deep shit.

Edit: regarding non-organics, it took a long time to realize that inhaling fine dust causes long-term health problems, and quite longer until dust filters became required and commonplace. We are still not done regarding fine dust emitted by traffic.

[refurb]

Agree that there are unknowns, but it's important to keep in mind that plastics have been used in medicine for quite some time. Devices for injection, inhalation, etc. Plastic are long-chain polymers which tend to be pretty non-reactive in the body, but you are correct additives/plasticizers can leech and be an issue.

I guess my point is - sure, maybe we'll find out one day that plastics are causing cancer, but we have a lot of data to suggest they don't at this point.