The Great Lakes, which provide drinking water for 30 million people, are increasingly littered with plastic, and that plastic is being ingested by humans with unknown consequences says a researcher from the State University of New York at Fredonia.  Tiny particles of plastic – either manufactured as microbeads or created by the disintegration of larger plastic items – are not removed by water treatment processes and are regularly consumed in drinking water.  While the exact effects of plastic ingestion on human health are still being studied, the possibility of significant harm should encourage us to reduce the amount of plastic in our daily lives, said Dr. Sherri Mason, a professor of Chemistry at SUNY Fredonia.

“Skip the straw, bag the bag, boot the bottle.”

“I believe in the precautionary principle,” said Mason. “If something is suspected of having an adverse health impact, stop it.”

Mason spoke at the Cleveland City Club yesterday on the state of the Great Lakes. In 2012 she led the first scientific survey of plastic loading in the Great Lakes, and has continued to study the extent of plastic contamination of the lakes. The most recent sampling found that Lake Erie contained 46,000 bits of plastic per square kilometer of water, a concentration higher than in any of the world’s oceans.  Lake Ontario, downstream from Lake Erie, contained 230,000 particles per square kilometer.

While there is no conclusive evidence that ingested plastic itself is harmful to human health, certain chemicals which are known to be harmful readily bind to plastic, said Mason. These chemicals have been linked to obesity, cancer, ADHD, autism, and decreased sperm counts.

Mason’s research helped convince the federal government to ban the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products in 2015. That ban took effect on July 1, 2018, and Mason expects that it will reduce plastic levels in the lakes by about 10 percent.

But microbeads are just a fraction of the 22 million pounds of discarded plastic that finds its way into the Great Lakes each year, said Mason. The lakes provide drinking water for more than 30 million people, and inevitably those people are consuming tiny particles of plastic with each glass of water.

Switching to bottled water isn’t going to help, said Mason, as bottled water, which is nearly always packed in plastic bottles, contains twice the amount of microplastic as does tap water.  The picture is not completely bleak, however. “Based on all evidence, beer is cleaner than water,” said Mason.

But switching from water to beer might not be the best solution. A better answer, said Mason, is stopping, or greatly reducing, the flow of plastic into the Great Lakes.  “We are the problem,” said Mason, “we are also the solution.”

As a society, we can look to replace plastic with other materials. Plastic has been in widespread use for less than 75 years. Every product made of plastic today was once made from other materials. “There is no reason we cannot replace plastic with less harmful alternatives,” said Mason.

But consumers don’t have to wait for industry or government to take action. There are simple steps that individuals can take that can make a difference. Three common products – plastic bags, plastic straws, and plastic bottles – account for 65 percent of the plastic market in the United States, said Mason.  By reducing their use of these three items, consumers can make an appreciable dent on the amount of plastic in our environment.

Mason cited several policies that can make a difference:

• Stores can charge fees for providing single-use plastic bags, especially if the fees increase over time.
• Restaurants can stop providing plastic straws automatically and can provide them only upon request.
• Public education campaigns.

In addition, individual consumers can change personal behaviors to reduce the amount of plastic we use:

• Prefer products with less plastic packaging
• Reduce use of single-use plastic products, especially plastic water bottles.
• Prefer goods made from other materials (wood, paper, metal, glass, cotton, etc.)

Over time, plastic has replaced many of these materials for convenience.  But we are only now realizing the long-term cost of that convenience. “We shouldn’t underestimate our influence,” said Mason. “The more we demand it, the more likely we are to see action.”

August 14, 2018