A recent study, published in the journal Chemosphere and taken up widely by news outlets, shows that many black plastic household products contain brominated flame retardants, which are possibly cancer-causing. This has caused alarm in our household as we use black plastic kitchen utensils for cooking, as do many of our loved ones. As we were making plans to restock our kitchen with nonplastic implements, we started to wonder: If we did all this, would it really decrease our exposure to plastic-related health hazards in any meaningful way?
This seemed like an important question, seeing that we’re surrounded by plastic. We keep our food and drink in plastic containers. The stuff we order online are delivered to us in single-use bags, bubble wrap, and tape, all made of plastic. Plastic has made its way into the food we eat, the water we drink, and even the air we breathe.
In 2022, scientists from the University of the Philippines Diliman Marine Science Institute sampled mussels being sold in eight different marketplaces throughout the Philippines for microplastics (bits of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters in diameter). The result? One hundred percent of the samples were contaminated with microplastics. Microplastics have also been detected in other staple food products in the Philippines, such as salt, sugar, fish sauce, and rice.
This is concerning because microplastics (and the many contaminants and germs that they contain) cause diseases. Ingestion and inhalation of microplastics could lead to a host of health problems, including asthma, allergies, reproductive problems, inflammatory bowel disease, disturbances in gut bacteria, and neurotoxicity manifesting as fatigue and dizziness. Some scientists are now even considering microplastics as a possible cause of the worrying increase in colorectal cancers among people younger than 50 years old.
What can we do to protect ourselves from the threat posed by microplastics?
Swapping out plastic kitchen utensils for nonplastic cookware (such as wood, steel, ceramic, or glass) is a good start, as supported by a 2024 study which showed that nonplastic cookware did not introduce microplastics into food. Other things that can be done at the household level include refraining from heating food in plastic containers (since heat makes microplastics leach into food), using glass or steel water containers instead of plastic, and eating less red meat (since microplastics accumulate in animal fat).
Recycling can also be done at the household level to prevent plastics from leaking out into the environment, only to make their way back to us in the form of microplastics in food. Filipinos, unfortunately, aren’t recycling enough—we only recycle 9 percent of the plastic we use, compared to the 65 percent that are simply disposed of and released into the environment.
To address this, we need solutions at the community and national levels that will incentivize recycling, improve recycling capabilities, and most importantly, reduce the amount of plastics being made in the first place.
Fortunately, such solutions already exist. For instance, the Trash to Cashback program implemented by various local government units with Basic Environmental Systems and Technologies, Inc., allows consumers to exchange recyclable plastics for points that may be used to purchase goods, or pay for water and electricity. We’ve been bringing our recyclables to Trash to Cashback for about three years now.
However, we cannot recycle our way out of plastic pollution. Ultimately, we must advocate for less plastic production and advocate for less reliance on plastic. One way of doing this is to hold plastic producers accountable for the plastics they generate. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022 mandates large businesses that generate plastic packaging waste (including sachets, plastic bags, hard plastics, polystyrene, etc.) to manage plastic production, importation, and use.
As constituents, we must ask public servants: what are you doing to ensure that the mandates of the EPR Act are observed, its targets achieved? As consumers, we must ask large businesses: what are you doing to stem the flow of plastics into the environment at its source?
By implementing interventions to address plastic pollution at the household, community, and national levels, and by integrating, promoting, and scaling up the numerous efforts of civil society groups, private organizations, local governments, and small enterprises to address plastic waste, we may avert the real and present public health threat of microplastics.
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John Carlo Timbol is a physician and a member of the Philippine Medical Association Committee on Environmental Health and Ecology. Karen Dominique Brillantes is a development professional with a decade of experience managing projects in the social development space. As a married couple, they are highly concerned about sustainability.