I'm one of those people that doesn't think plastics are the devil, that doesn't think natural == good and unnatural == bad, basically the kind of people this guy expects to be in agreement with him. I was once an extrusion mechanic.
He doesn't explain jack. Nothing. There is no explanation about any concerns anyone has voiced whatsoever. The only place he almost explains some chemistry, he says "email me if you want to know."
Appeal to authority... specifically the FDA. That doesn't work today. We have had nasty things get past them before.
There are thousands of compounds used in various plastics. Probably, if you count one off additives in proprietary formulas, hundreds of thousands or even millions. You're telling me that not a single one of those, not one, got past the regulators, has an impact nobody foresaw, or fraud was done in the research to get it approved? Not one?
Of course he's not saying that. I almost feel bad for him, he set himself up to explain a topic it would take an entire college course to explain. He can't explain the biochemistry and organic chemistry of every single compound used in plastics, but he decided to write an article defending them anyways, how can anyone expect such an article to have enough substance?
I think it's obvious today, we are bathing our world in compounds that have an impact on our health, on our biomes, that we cannot possibly foresee. We cannot know all the interactions and pathways. It is incredibly irresponsible. Plastics are not somehow immune from that. Lead, DDT, thalidomide, I guarantee you something in our food, our agriculture, our materials supply chains, something that is currently approved, recognized as safe, in widespread use, will be added to that list in our lifetimes. Probably more than one. I just hope we take it seriously and stop making the same mistake.
Plastic is natural. Polyolefins like PE and PP are essentially highly polymerized waxes, like bees wax. Polystyrene is derived from styrene a chemical that various plants naturally produce. We are increasingly discovering that microbes and fungi do consume and digest most commodity plastics. Plastics are by definition organic materials. The only major commodity compound not related to compounds already found in nature is Polyvinylchloride. The most common plastic on earth is entirely naturally produced. It's chemistry is too complicated for man to economically produce at industrial scale. The name of this plastic is lignin and it is what gives wood its strength and resilience.
The article already went over the meaningless distinction between natural and unnatural, and I've already agreed with that. Are any of them hazardous to humans or biomes?
Also this concentration on the organicness of plastics fails to address the numerous inorganic additives.
I'm one of those people that doesn't think plastics are the devil, that doesn't think natural == good and unnatural == bad, basically the kind of people this guy expects to be in agreement with him. I was once an extrusion mechanic.
He doesn't explain jack. Nothing. There is no explanation about any concerns anyone has voiced whatsoever. The only place he almost explains some chemistry, he says "email me if you want to know."
Appeal to authority... specifically the FDA. That doesn't work today. We have had nasty things get past them before.
There are thousands of compounds used in various plastics. Probably, if you count one off additives in proprietary formulas, hundreds of thousands or even millions. You're telling me that not a single one of those, not one, got past the regulators, has an impact nobody foresaw, or fraud was done in the research to get it approved? Not one?
Of course he's not saying that. I almost feel bad for him, he set himself up to explain a topic it would take an entire college course to explain. He can't explain the biochemistry and organic chemistry of every single compound used in plastics, but he decided to write an article defending them anyways, how can anyone expect such an article to have enough substance?
I think it's obvious today, we are bathing our world in compounds that have an impact on our health, on our biomes, that we cannot possibly foresee. We cannot know all the interactions and pathways. It is incredibly irresponsible. Plastics are not somehow immune from that. Lead, DDT, thalidomide, I guarantee you something in our food, our agriculture, our materials supply chains, something that is currently approved, recognized as safe, in widespread use, will be added to that list in our lifetimes. Probably more than one. I just hope we take it seriously and stop making the same mistake.