Just a few days ago, I noticed a brown paper shopping bag from one of our shopping expeditions in Dimapur. What first caught my eye were the words printed in bold capitals near the bottom of the bag: PLASTICS ARE TOXIC...PAPER IS THE ANSWER. As I examined the bag more closely, I became even more interested. The bag had been printed by “a government of Nagaland undertaking.”
Acknowledging the existence of a problem is always the first step towards correcting the problem. Plastics are a genuine threat to both human and environmental health. Soft plastics, such as those used in shopping bags, contain the greatest risks to health because they contain plasticizers—special softening chemicals such as phalates.
Exposure to the chemicals in plastics can lead to an increased risk of many serious illnesses including allergies, brain cancer, hormonal imbalances, hardening of connective tissue in the body, malignant tumors, reproductive and developmental problems. And the longer plastics are used in a particular geographic area, the greater the risk to the health of the population becomes.
This is because plastic never goes away. It simply breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. All the plastic that's ever been produced in the world is still with us in the soil and water—unless its been burned. And the burning of plastics creates even worse health problems. Depending upon the type of plastic being burned, the smoke can contain highly toxic cyanides, PCB’s, furans and deadly dioxin. When these toxic chemicals is inhaled in house fires, it is a leading cause of death. Researchers have established that inhalation of the chemicals in burning plastic can also cause hormonal and sex behavioral orientation problems in birds and in newborn children. Children can begin exhibiting the behavior of the sex opposite to their own biological sex—males acting female and vice versa.
Toxins from burning plastic can also cause asthma and many other allergies. According to medical reports in areas where the burning of plastic is practiced, men's sperm counts is extremely low compared to previous generations and cancer of the testicles has increased by 55 % over a period of twelve years. Fewer boys, compared to girls, are being born in these areas.
The toxic smoke particles from burning plastics eventually falls to the ground and contaminates the soil and water. This is also true for unburned plastics. They break down into smaller and smaller particles and contaminate the soil that way. Food grown on such contaminated soil can take up these chemicals which will make the food capable of causing many health problems in the future.
Between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are used each year in the northern hemisphere alone. This is proof that modern society has become totally addicted to plastic. This didn't need to be a bad thing. I have personally held in my hands, non toxic, biodegradable plastic products that were made from corn starch—an agricultural product. If all the plastic that has ever been made in the past fifty years had all been made from non toxic agricultural products, the use of plastic would not be the serious problem it is today.
But the plastic in use today is made from petroleum, a toxic product that isn't harvested from the earth by farmers, but by very large and very wealthy multi-national corporations. Which do you think is more important to protect? The wealth of large foreign corporations, or the personal health of Nagas and the environmental health of Nagaland?
As we noticed a couple of weeks ago, the country of Bhutan, to the north of Nagaland, has banned all plastic bags across the country. This little country is ahead of the west, but the west is desperately trying to catch up with the help of activists in several countries. Two national opinion polls in Australia show that there is overwhelming public support for a ban on plastic bags in that country. Some communities in Australia have already introduced their own bans, which shows that we need not wait on national governments to lead the way towards better health for the people of a particular community.
A group called Northern Californians Against Plastic is in favor of shoppers being charged a 17 cent fee for plastic shopping bags. But this approach has been shown not to work in Ireland. When a plastic bag fee was introduced in Ireland, there was a dramatic decrease in plastic bag use at first. But people got used to paying the fee and in the end there was an increase in plastic bag use rather than the intended reduction.
What will Nagaland do to protect the health of their sons and daughters and the health of this beautiful land from the killer toxins in plastics? Will the people of Nagaland rise up together and say, “Enough is enough? We will not destroy ourselves with toxic western inventions that even the wise from the west now regret!”
Burning of plastic is the place to start. The burning of plastic must stop! Spread the word across Nagaland. Help everyone understand the deadly danger of breathing the fumes from burning plastic. Let's voluntarily stop this health-destroying practice today.
Then let us ask ourselves the question, “Is it time to copy Bhutan's example and the example of some communities in the west and institute our own ban on plastic shopping bags? The biggest problem with plastic bags is that there literally is no safe disposal option for them. Every bag guarantees further degradation of the environment and the potential degradation of someone's health—perhaps your own health or that of your child.
But what is the alternative? The paper shopping bag I mentioned at the start of this column claims that “paper is the answer.” But is this actually true? The answer is, “It depends.” The way most paper is manufactured today, it is not the answer.
A plastic bag requires 594 BTUs of energy to make, but a paper bag takes 2511 BTUs. More than four times more energy is used to manufacture paper bags. Since most paper is made from tree pulp, the use of paper bags doesn't help the devastating impact on the world's forests that are necessary for the health of the entire planet. In only one year, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by just Americans, never mind the rest of the world. Multiple millions of liters of toxic chemicals are released by paper mills in the processing of wood pulp into paper. According to an article entitled, “Comparison of the Effects on the Environment of Polyethylene and Paper Carrier Bags,” put out by the Federal Office of the Environment, in the United States in 1988, paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
There are other answers. One is disposable bags made from corn starch in an environmentally-friendly way. But this may require technology beyond the present reach of Nagaland. The Chinese have been making paper from bamboo for over 1,500 years and they didn't destroy the environment with their old traditional methods. Environmentally-friendly paper manufacture must also be a distinct possibility that should be studied for the future.
But for an immediate solution in Nagaland, there is yet another answer. Many shoppers in the United States have learned the habit of using cloth shopping bags. Smart stores offer cloth shopping bags for sale with their shop name and location printed on the bags. Here is a possibility for a series of new cottage industries. Could weavers of traditional Naga fabrics add colorful Naga shopping bags to their manufacturing list? Could tailors across Nagaland start manufacturing shoppings bags from less expensive natural fabrics? And what about those who craft bamboo into strong, long-lasting woven products? How difficult would it be to start weaving tough bamboo shopping bags tomorrow?
This solution could provide a boost to the local economy through the manufact ure and sale of a new product line that saves the environment, and protects your health. And when you really stop to think about it, is there anything more valuable than the health of this land and its people? Here is a simple battle that the Naga could win this very year if they chose to fight it—the battle of the bags.
Its not just about plastic bags. Its really about your life, your health, your future, and your prosperity. How much are these things worth to you? Will you sit back, do nothing, and ensure the protection of petroleum profits? Or will you take an active stand for your own health, your children's health, and the health of Nagaland's soil, water, and crops by making your voice heard on this issue?
Acknowledging the existence of a problem is always the first step towards correcting the problem. Plastics are a genuine threat to both human and environmental health. Soft plastics, such as those used in shopping bags, contain the greatest risks to health because they contain plasticizers—special softening chemicals such as phalates.
Exposure to the chemicals in plastics can lead to an increased risk of many serious illnesses including allergies, brain cancer, hormonal imbalances, hardening of connective tissue in the body, malignant tumors, reproductive and developmental problems. And the longer plastics are used in a particular geographic area, the greater the risk to the health of the population becomes.
This is because plastic never goes away. It simply breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. All the plastic that's ever been produced in the world is still with us in the soil and water—unless its been burned. And the burning of plastics creates even worse health problems. Depending upon the type of plastic being burned, the smoke can contain highly toxic cyanides, PCB’s, furans and deadly dioxin. When these toxic chemicals is inhaled in house fires, it is a leading cause of death. Researchers have established that inhalation of the chemicals in burning plastic can also cause hormonal and sex behavioral orientation problems in birds and in newborn children. Children can begin exhibiting the behavior of the sex opposite to their own biological sex—males acting female and vice versa.
Toxins from burning plastic can also cause asthma and many other allergies. According to medical reports in areas where the burning of plastic is practiced, men's sperm counts is extremely low compared to previous generations and cancer of the testicles has increased by 55 % over a period of twelve years. Fewer boys, compared to girls, are being born in these areas.
The toxic smoke particles from burning plastics eventually falls to the ground and contaminates the soil and water. This is also true for unburned plastics. They break down into smaller and smaller particles and contaminate the soil that way. Food grown on such contaminated soil can take up these chemicals which will make the food capable of causing many health problems in the future.
Between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are used each year in the northern hemisphere alone. This is proof that modern society has become totally addicted to plastic. This didn't need to be a bad thing. I have personally held in my hands, non toxic, biodegradable plastic products that were made from corn starch—an agricultural product. If all the plastic that has ever been made in the past fifty years had all been made from non toxic agricultural products, the use of plastic would not be the serious problem it is today.
But the plastic in use today is made from petroleum, a toxic product that isn't harvested from the earth by farmers, but by very large and very wealthy multi-national corporations. Which do you think is more important to protect? The wealth of large foreign corporations, or the personal health of Nagas and the environmental health of Nagaland?
As we noticed a couple of weeks ago, the country of Bhutan, to the north of Nagaland, has banned all plastic bags across the country. This little country is ahead of the west, but the west is desperately trying to catch up with the help of activists in several countries. Two national opinion polls in Australia show that there is overwhelming public support for a ban on plastic bags in that country. Some communities in Australia have already introduced their own bans, which shows that we need not wait on national governments to lead the way towards better health for the people of a particular community.
A group called Northern Californians Against Plastic is in favor of shoppers being charged a 17 cent fee for plastic shopping bags. But this approach has been shown not to work in Ireland. When a plastic bag fee was introduced in Ireland, there was a dramatic decrease in plastic bag use at first. But people got used to paying the fee and in the end there was an increase in plastic bag use rather than the intended reduction.
What will Nagaland do to protect the health of their sons and daughters and the health of this beautiful land from the killer toxins in plastics? Will the people of Nagaland rise up together and say, “Enough is enough? We will not destroy ourselves with toxic western inventions that even the wise from the west now regret!”
Burning of plastic is the place to start. The burning of plastic must stop! Spread the word across Nagaland. Help everyone understand the deadly danger of breathing the fumes from burning plastic. Let's voluntarily stop this health-destroying practice today.
Then let us ask ourselves the question, “Is it time to copy Bhutan's example and the example of some communities in the west and institute our own ban on plastic shopping bags? The biggest problem with plastic bags is that there literally is no safe disposal option for them. Every bag guarantees further degradation of the environment and the potential degradation of someone's health—perhaps your own health or that of your child.
But what is the alternative? The paper shopping bag I mentioned at the start of this column claims that “paper is the answer.” But is this actually true? The answer is, “It depends.” The way most paper is manufactured today, it is not the answer.
A plastic bag requires 594 BTUs of energy to make, but a paper bag takes 2511 BTUs. More than four times more energy is used to manufacture paper bags. Since most paper is made from tree pulp, the use of paper bags doesn't help the devastating impact on the world's forests that are necessary for the health of the entire planet. In only one year, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by just Americans, never mind the rest of the world. Multiple millions of liters of toxic chemicals are released by paper mills in the processing of wood pulp into paper. According to an article entitled, “Comparison of the Effects on the Environment of Polyethylene and Paper Carrier Bags,” put out by the Federal Office of the Environment, in the United States in 1988, paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
There are other answers. One is disposable bags made from corn starch in an environmentally-friendly way. But this may require technology beyond the present reach of Nagaland. The Chinese have been making paper from bamboo for over 1,500 years and they didn't destroy the environment with their old traditional methods. Environmentally-friendly paper manufacture must also be a distinct possibility that should be studied for the future.
But for an immediate solution in Nagaland, there is yet another answer. Many shoppers in the United States have learned the habit of using cloth shopping bags. Smart stores offer cloth shopping bags for sale with their shop name and location printed on the bags. Here is a possibility for a series of new cottage industries. Could weavers of traditional Naga fabrics add colorful Naga shopping bags to their manufacturing list? Could tailors across Nagaland start manufacturing shoppings bags from less expensive natural fabrics? And what about those who craft bamboo into strong, long-lasting woven products? How difficult would it be to start weaving tough bamboo shopping bags tomorrow?
This solution could provide a boost to the local economy through the manufact ure and sale of a new product line that saves the environment, and protects your health. And when you really stop to think about it, is there anything more valuable than the health of this land and its people? Here is a simple battle that the Naga could win this very year if they chose to fight it—the battle of the bags.
Its not just about plastic bags. Its really about your life, your health, your future, and your prosperity. How much are these things worth to you? Will you sit back, do nothing, and ensure the protection of petroleum profits? Or will you take an active stand for your own health, your children's health, and the health of Nagaland's soil, water, and crops by making your voice heard on this issue?
(Ian Anthony Jones is a health educator and missionary from the US now married to a Naga and residing in Dimapur. He will be contributing every Friday to the Morung Express under the column: Health & Healing. You may contact the Health and Healing columnist and give him feedback at: edenbarak.ngo@gmail.com)
