The Plastic Connection to Pink October
Updated: Oct 20, 2021
Pink October aims to spread knowledge and raise awareness around breast cancer, a motion that began in 1997 by Pink Ribbon.
What is the plastic connection to Pink October?
In 2012 BPA was banned from baby bottles and sippy cups, after a wide range of manufacturers already stopped using this due to rising concern in its properties as an endocrine disruptor. Unfortunately, BPA’s cousin, BPS/BFAS, is just as harmful, possibly worse.
Harmful chemicals are released from all plastic items
Plastic is not just polluting the environment, it is polluting our bodies, with toxic forever chemicals found in human tissue, breast milk, and urine amongst others.
The depth of understanding plastic toxicity may be overwhelming, leading us to overlook it’s harmful impact within our bodies. This is not your fault, it’s intentionally confusing. Plastic is a material that fits a wide range of applications, used in everyday items, and more importantly - large scale industrial machine lines were designed and created for plastics, thus avoiding the use of it today requires work, capital and habit changing.
BPA/BPS/BFAS chemicals, mentioned above, disrupt our hormonal system which affects our sleep and behavior, and harms our health in many ways:
Exposure to BPS multiplies Breast Cancer cells
Male fertility crisis - ‘Sperm Counts Could Reach Zero By 2045’
Higher diabetes rates in women
What can you do?
How to live without the worst household plastics - takeaway cutlery, wet wipes, menstrual products
How to use, prepare and clean baby bottles
Kitchen - replace plastic/teflon, containers and appliances with glass/metal/wood
Laundry detergents have a variety of chemicals to lookout for
Conscious-consumer apps help understanding if your cosmetics are safe for you
Visualizing how we intake forever chemicals:
Image source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967748/
Interested in learning more about how plastic chemicals are affecting our health, here are a few recommendations:
Plastic Air - an interactive experience for Google Arts & Culture explores the environmental impact of airborne microplastics.