How does plastic cause environmental hazards answer?
Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, animals and plants through toxic pollutants. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down so the environmental damage is long-lasting. Toxins work their way up the food chain when plastic is ingested and can even be present in the fish people eat.
What are the five environmental hazards of plastic?
The following are the five environment hazards of plastic:
- It pollutes the environment because they do not decompose even after millions of years.
- The gases that emit from burning the plastic causes air pollution and other harmful diseases such as Asthma.
- When mixes in the water reservoirs it causes water pollution.
How is plastic harmful to human health?
Microplastics entering the human body via direct exposures through ingestion 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.
Why is plastic a disaster for the environment?
The manufacture of plastic, as well as its destruction by incineration, pollutes air, land and water and exposes workers to toxic chemicals, including carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals). As we have mentioned several times, synthetic plastic does not biodegrade.
What happens if plastic is considered a hazardous substance?
If plastics are considered a hazardous substance, the EPA then has legislation to go in and clean up that area and use funding and litigation to prevent further debris from accumulating. CURWOOD: Let’s talk some numbers of plastics. How much plastic do we produce every year, and how much of it is not taken care of?
Who is calling for reclassification of plastic as hazardous waste?
Some scientists have called for reclassifying plastic as a hazardous waste. This would give environmental agencies more tools and funding to clean up plastic in ecosystems around the world. One of the authors of a commentary in Nature is Chelsea Rochman, an marine ecologist at the University of California at Davis.
Where is plastic pollution found in the world?
Plastic pollution may not even be visible to the naked eye as research is showing that microscopic plastic particles are present in the air at various locations throughout the world and in all major oceans. Plastic is now ubiquitous in our terrestrial, aquatic and airborne environments – that is, it’s everywhere…