Health and environment: a closer look at plastics January 23,
2013 Plastics have transformed modern society, providing
attractive benefits but also befouling waterways and aquifers,
depleting petroleum supplies and disrupting human health. Rolf
Halden, a researcher at Arizona State University’s Biodesign
Institute has been following the chemical trail of plastics,
quantifying their impact on human health and the environment. In
a new overview appearing in the journal Reviews on Environmental
Health, Halden and his co-author, ASU student Emily North,
detail the risks and societal rewards of plastics and describe
strategies to mitigate their negative impacts, through
reconsideration of plastic composition, use and disposal. “We
are in need of a second plastic revolution. The first one
brought us the age of plastics, changing human society and
enabling the birth and explosive growth of many industries. But
the materials used to make plastics weren’t chosen judiciously
and we see the adverse consequences in wides