Oil Companies Soon to Promote Plastic Diet

Oil companies are facing a global slowdown in the demand for oil based fuels.  In response they are ramping up their production of oil based chemicals.  A significant factor in this ramp up are the petroleum based chemicals used in the production of plastics.  

Demand for gasoline is flatlining as electric vehicle sales grow and conventional cars become more efficient. But oil is essential for much more than just transportation: It’s broken down into chemicals and plastics used in every aspect of modern life...

...Crude drillers and refiners see that as their safe haven against the fading outlook for fuel, ensuring that they’ll have a piece of a more robust market for their hydrocarbons. 

Not satisfied with their starring role in climate change, oil companies are now looking to poison the survivors with a plastic waste filled future filled with plastics contaminated water and food.  Speaking of food, a new study by the University of Victoria, British Columbia, concludes that we are routinely ingesting  massive amounts of plastic particulates.

University of Victoria, BC

Their discovery? 50,000 for adults, 40,000 for children. When inhalation is factored in, the estimate jumps to between 74,000 and 121,000 for adults.

These amounts, as shockingly high as they seem, are probably underestimated. The foods in the studies comprise only 15 percent of a typical American's caloric intake, which suggests the real number is higher.

We are many years from a final determination of the overall toxicity of this plastic soup on humans, but the warning signs are there.  

Experiments show that microplastics damage aquatic creatures, as well as turtles and birds: They block digestive tracts, diminish the urge to eat, and alter feeding behavior, all of which reduce growth and reproductive output. Their stomachs stuffed with plastic, some species starve and die.  

In addition to mechanical effects, microplastics have chemical impacts, because free-floating pollutants that wash off the land and into our seas—such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heavy metals—tend to adhere to their surfaces.

Keep in mind that energy companies knew in the 1970s that fossil fuel derived CO2 was impacting global warming.  Imaging how hard the oil companies will work to insure that their next cash cow - plastics - is as aggressively protected.