Remember Ziplock? The smart plastic packaging bags that you can zip up nicely by just sliding top smoothly and effortlessly? The bags and containers have been a strong presence in the lives of Americans, and the rest of us, for a long time now.  Well, the manufacturers are facing lawsuits because the product is now very muchin the news as a health hazard.  The submission is that the science behind plastics and microplastics suggests that Ziploc bags and containers have undisclosed microplastics that are harmful to the human body.

While the spokesperson for the manufacturers has said: “Ziploc products are safe when used as directed and that the lawsuit is without merit,” the lawsuit filed on April 25 by California resident, Linda Cheslow, is saying that Ziploc bags and containers are being falsely marketed as “microwave safe” and suitable for “freezer” when they are not.  The further submission is that they are made from “materials that scientific and medical evidence show release microplastics when microwaved and frozen.”

With the manufacturer’s claims being described as “unfair, unlawful, deceptive, and misleading”, the stage is set for a legal showdown with strong scientific undertones that would ripple across all the continents.

The first time the issue of microplastics came up on this column was on February 22, 2024., under the heading “Beware, Microplastics on the Prowl”. Tremble, Microplastics on the Prowl”. The submission, then, was that “…danger looms for all humanity, because of the wide and continuous penetration of microplastics into our environment, our food and, wait for it, the placenta of unborn babies”.

A friend had called me after reading the article at time then, with this opening statement: “Okey, what is it? O’ gini? Microplastics kwa? What won’t you write about and who knows what you would write next? Biko, leave all these scientific things and stop frightening us”. I simply replied him thus: “E kereoru eke” (Everyone with his own task, according to his abilities and inclinations).

That article of 2024 spoke of a study published in the Journal of Toxicological Sciences by a team led by Matthew Campen, which found microplastics in all 62 donated baby placenta samples tested. The world has clear evidence today of a steady rise in the amount of microplastics everywhere, with likely negative long-term effects on the ecosystem and on human life. These are all combinations of chemicals, amounting to agglomerations of radiations with definite effects on the living and non-living environments.

On the matter of radiations, let us go back to what was said on this page on June 5, 2020, Under the caption, “5G Controversy Needs Honest Science”; wherein it was said; “It is a fact of science that everything on earth gives out a definite radiation. It is also a fact of science that what we call “matter”, like a table, or even our bodies, is just pure energy vibrating at a specific frequency. It is the frequency and rate of vibration that creates what we call shape, size, texture, etc.”

That article further said: “These particles also generate small electrical impulses, creating some sort of “field” around objects, even if only at a microscopic/atomic level for some of them. The human aura, for instance, is the result of electrical impulses, which continue from the subatomic level until they emerge as our electromagnetic field. What we eat, how we live and where we live can alter our aura significantly. So, using the term loosely if you like, electromagnetic fields are inevitable for all existents”.

For the record, as mentioned here back then, the most readily available material in the placental tissue used for the aforementioned experiment was polyethylene. This material, which is used for the manufacturing of plastic bags and plastic bottles made up 54% of the total plastics detected in the sample human placenta used for the experiment. You also had PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) and nylon, at about 10% of the total, with the balance was made up of nine other related materials.

The double trouble today is that many research findings are identifying the substantial presence of microplastics in almost everything we eat today: meat, fruits, bottled water and many otherwise natural food items. Now, the things we also store our food with, such as Ziplock and similar packaging facilities are confirmed culprits. Millions of metric tons of plastic waste have been spewed into the environment over the last seventy years or thereabouts. It is both a general environmental hazard, a known threat to natural waterways, and also an emerging menace to plant and animal life; and the global ecosystem.

Since many plastic products take between 50 and 300 years to fully degrade into simple elements and original compounds, the question today is how long it would take the microplastics everywhere today to fully degrade and what would be happening to us and our environment while this degrading lasts.

Now that microplastics can be found in practically every part of the human body, and now that we also know that microplastic exposure is a clear and ever-present reality, we should perhaps begin to consider alternatives that portend less danger. Natural materials, like wood and wood derivatives like paper, come to mind here. They break down into the soil and get converted into minerals more easily, to become organic natural nutrients and substances that are readily reintegrated into the many cycles of every ecosystem. 

Exposed plastic breaks down into nano and microscopic particles. Some of these sinkinto the soil. Some get taken up by the wind, to be dispersed and for us to inhale without knowing it. If a recent report from the organization PlastChem showsthat there are not less than 16,000 chemicals in the different types of plastic we use regularly all over the world, and that over 4,200 of these chemicals are dangerous to human health and the environment, it may most likely follow that the questions being raised about Ziplock should be taken a little more seriously by everyone.

If deep underground water tables, the Arctic permafrost, the flesh and internal organs of marine and terrestrial animals, the vegetables and forest plants all now have microplastics, it follows that there is almost nothing that we can pick up and eat without getting some microplastics into our system. Microplastics are now in every organ, including arterial plaque, the human bloodstreams, and the placenta of babies. As we use plastic wraps and containers for storage and all sorts of things the bits of these materials that “disengage” due to oxidation or other causes end up in our body.

This means limiting, or minimizing, the number and type of plastic products we use. Since it is now officially estimated, based on current research findings, including the submissions of researchers at the University of New Mexico, that plastic particles accumulating in human brains has increased by 50% in the last eight years, no one needs to be further warned. Since also some budding research has confirmed the negative health impacts of microplastics, especially with regard to some chemicals added during plastic production that are linked to such conditions as endocrine system disruption and heart disease, there is even more cause for alarm.

Because microplastics can leach through the skin, our lotions, shampoos and much more are all now suspect to some extent; depending on the materials used for making them; especially those with petroleum-derived ingredients. So, to avoid eating or using anything that is remotely traceable to plastic contact and contamination is one way to go. Hey, consider your toothbrush, makeup accessories, face powder and makeup applicators. Ditto for plastics-based cooking utensils, like plastic cutting boards; which deposit microplastics on meat, vegetablesand whatever food we are cutting up.

Non-stick pans are not exempt; especially the older cooking accessories, with worn or pealing coatings. They introduce unhealthy and arguably toxic substances to our food – and into our bodies. It is back to the good old cast iron utensils, metal, or ceramic cookware, wooden accessories, silicone, or other metal-based wares then. Glass, or metal, would be ideal as replacement when thinking of food storage facilities.

Chewing stick, bamboo toothbrush and silk floss may be considered for the teeth. Since clothing materials like polyester, nylon, acrylic, and spandex are all plastic-based fabrics, it is easy to understand that bits of the plastic would penetrate the human body through the skin. Since, also, such particles do not subsequently break down and get thrown off, washing the materials introduces some of the plastic into the water systems when they are washed. What are we to expect in the next few years?

Which brings us to the role of dishwashers in microplastic pollution. Yes! A new study from the University of Queensland shows that household dishwashers are fantastic sources of microplastic pollution. The discovery shows to what extent our domestic enablers contribute in no small way to global microplastic pollution. The connection here is between plastic use, plastic handling, cleaning habits, wastewater contamination and environmental pollution.

For Dr. Elvis Okoffoand his team from the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, a study of how plastic containers behave under typical dishwashing conditions shows that it is possible to load a dishwasher of common household plastic items and determine the approximate value of microplastics arising therefrom.

The unexpected negative side effect of this convenient mechanical dishwashing is that it makes plastics degrade under exposure to high heat, water pressure, and cleaning chemicals.With this, both visible and invisible fragments of plastic wares break off and ultimately flow down the drainas wastewater. This makes the kitchen a strong culprit in the supply of sundry plastic pollutants in the environment.

When we consider the average operating temperature of dishwashers and that any plastic material under such heat reacts chemically and physically to abrasion, it is easy to understand that repeated exposure weakens the structural integrity of plastic items. Add the friction of scrubbing and rinsing to the pressure of water jets and detergents and it would b easy to see how the ensuing breakdown releases nano and microplastic particles. These plastic debris enter the environment and, because they are not easy to remove, end up accumulating in aquatic environments and marine life and even underground water tables. Being so small, they are able to travel far, become part of food chains and the overall ecosystem.

When you consider that each dishwasher cycle potentially releases about 920,000 plastic particles, including microplasticsand nano plastics, it must follow that this is a little-considered source of phenomenal amounts of microplastic pollution. So, watch out! Your Ziplock now seems to be a health hazard. And, strange and almost reprehensible as it may sound, everyone who owns a dishwasher is on the row of accused persons for microplastic pollution. The global concern is really serious – and justified. Please make the necessary changes at personal level, while keeping an eye on what Lagos is planning on doing about regarding disposable nylon materials.