Plastic is found in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the soil below us, and even inside of our bodies.

Plastic pollution is a human health, social justice, environmental, climate, and wildlife issue. People and communities across the world are finally waking up to the fact that plastic pollution impacts everything.

We at Dragon Herbs would like to invite all of our customers to learn the facts about plastic pollution and to join PlasticPollutionCoalitionand other environmental advocacy organizations in changing the system away from single-use plastics and toward just, equitable solutions that benefit the health of humans, animals, waterways, oceans, and our environment.

Read the excerpts from plasticpollutioncoalition.org below.

Plastic & Human Health

Studies of the plastics’ endless existence paint a toxic picture: at every stage, from extraction to production to transportation to use to disposal, plastic pollution threatens human health on a global scale. Communities on the fenceline of petrochemical and plastics infrastructure face chemical pollution of air, land, and water, in addition to pollution of dangerous plastic particles, noise, and risk of deadly industrial accidents like fires and explosions. Serious human health problems associated with fossil fuel extraction, plastics production, use, and disposal are numerous, and include cancer, diabetes, obesity, respiratory issues, reproductive and hormone problems, asthma, and more. Learn more about the human health risks of plastic in this short video.

15 Facts About Plastic You Must Know About

A study by the University of Newcastle, Australia suggests that an average person could be ingesting approximately 5 grams of plastic every week, the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of microplastics.
Plastic pollution kills one person every 30 seconds.
Plastic items injure and kill millions of wild animals every year.
400 million tons of new plastics are created each year.
40% of plastics is for single use purposes.
Just 5% to 6% of plastic waste generated in the US gets recycled.
It’s estimated that by 2050, there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight).
Since its invention in the 1950s, most of the plastic that’s been made still exists today. It can take thousands of years to decompose.
Plastics do not benignly break down like natural substances. Instead, they break apart into infinitely smaller pieces that remain plastic. This process can be sped up when plastics are exposed to water, such as in the ocean or in a water bottle, or when plastic is heated…
Most plastic water bottles are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. At least 150 chemicals are known to leach from PET plastic beverage bottles into the liquid inside, including heavy metals like antimony and lead, and hormone-disruptors like BPA.
Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers have found at least 240,000 plastic particles in the average liter of bottled water, a major health concern.
At every stage of its lifecycle, plastic poses distinct risks to human health, arising from both exposure to plastic particles themselves and associated chemicals. The majority of people worldwide are exposed at multiple stages of this lifecycle.
Over the past several years, scientists have detected the presence of tiny plastic particles all throughout people’s bodies, including in our hearts, bloodstreams, veins, lungs, placentas, feces, testes/semen, breast milk, and brains, with more worrying research now on the way.
Micro and nano-plastics entering the human body via direct exposures through ingestion, skin contact, or inhalation can lead to an array of health impacts, including inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and necrosis, which are linked to an array of negative health outcomes including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflammation, autoimmune conditions, neurodegenerative diseases, and stroke.
All plastic waste management technologies (including incineration, co-incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis) result in the release of toxic substances to the air, water, and soils.