Today is World Environment Day and the theme is tackling plastic pollution. Many might think of plastic in the oceans or landfill, but the interplay with air pollution is significant too. Microplastics can become airborne - it’s hard to forget this startling factoid, that we all inhale about a credit card worth of plastic a week.
Like all tiny particulates, microplastics can get into the bloodstream and to all our organs. It seems that plastic particles have a particular tendency to get trapped. While understanding of the health impacts is still in its infancy, the toxicity of these particles is a concern. Read more in our Air Aware Labs article for World Environment Day.
And that’s just through inhaling microplastics. What if we add in the toxic fumes when plastic is burnt? Globally, 40% of waste is burnt and this releases even more toxicity. In many cases in the UK, this is used to generate power but in a very unclean way. Burning takes place even within London - Rainham Against Pollution is one of our fellow Breathe London groups, campaigning against the underground burning at Arnolds Fields.
Our local monitor has been showing some big spikes in particulate matter recently (not to mention nitrogen dioxide). While we don’t know the composition of this matter, it’s likely that some is made up of airborne plastic pollution. The green line is a comparison for London so our monitor has definitely been showing some higher spikes.
Meanwhile at the High Court
Mums For Lungs are asking your help to respond to this survey by tomorrow (Friday) to support their campaign against diesel cars. Earlier this year they discovered that there are still millions of diesel cars on our roads emitting illegal levels of air pollution. Over 50 major charities and hundreds of individuals subsequently signed their open letter to the High Court asking for documents to be released due to significant public interest in the upcoming Dieselgate court case. This survey will provide even more evidence for their case.