Introduction and translation of text from a television programme concerning plastic and its side effects on health and the environment.
As the Pacific Ocean continues to succumb to industrial pollution it is important to look at the chemical materials pouring out of the global market and entering our bloodstream. It is essential to draw our attention to plastic waste which is already a huge problem in our Pacific Island countries.
Papua New Guinea is a place where some of the most beautiful carrying bags are made. So there is really no need for us to be polluting our environment with cheap supermarket plastic bags. There have been many efforts and clean up campaigns done in our urban centres, but we have to also realise and undersand the fact that plastic waste is a long lasting poison in our environment.
The film on this blog will stream to you from a German website and this link may only be current for a week until ZDF moves it perhaps into an archive. I'll try to keep track of this programme so that we can have it available to the Pacific for a while longer. Unfortunately I have not found an English version of the film, but I provide a translation of the main themes and facts. If you speak German then you may just go ahead and watch the presentation - just in case you have missed it. The programme itself "Abenteuer Forschung" comes in regular weekly installments on Wednesday evenings on ZDF.
Tiny Quantities with Enormous Consequences:
Does the risk stem from plastics?
As the Pacific Ocean continues to succumb to industrial pollution it is important to look at the chemical materials pouring out of the global market and entering our bloodstream. It is essential to draw our attention to plastic waste which is already a huge problem in our Pacific Island countries.
Papua New Guinea is a place where some of the most beautiful carrying bags are made. So there is really no need for us to be polluting our environment with cheap supermarket plastic bags. There have been many efforts and clean up campaigns done in our urban centres, but we have to also realise and undersand the fact that plastic waste is a long lasting poison in our environment.
The film on this blog will stream to you from a German website and this link may only be current for a week until ZDF moves it perhaps into an archive. I'll try to keep track of this programme so that we can have it available to the Pacific for a while longer. Unfortunately I have not found an English version of the film, but I provide a translation of the main themes and facts. If you speak German then you may just go ahead and watch the presentation - just in case you have missed it. The programme itself "Abenteuer Forschung" comes in regular weekly installments on Wednesday evenings on ZDF.
Please click link below to play video
Translations of main themes from the programme: Kunststoffe: die dunkle Seite des Erfolgs - "Plastic: The Dark Side of Success" presented on the science magazine of ZDF (Second Channel of German Television) by Professor Harald Lesch. I provide some pictures (actual screenshots from the programme) so the reader may work out which part of the film the translations belong to. Source material which I have translated is written in italics and my notes are in normal script.
Mankind came into the world and found that the earth is not always at the whims of our wishes. So we have been developing for over a hundred years in chemical laboratories: wish fulfilling substances that can behave exactly as we wish of them. Plastic is such a substance... so now plastic is everywhere, on us, around us and even inside us.
Opening lines by Professor Harald LeschHormone affecting materials:
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| Fertility of men in industrialised nations steadily decreasing |
Tiny Quantities with Enormous Consequences:
The fertility of the men in industrial nations decreases steadily since the middle of the last century. Researchers observe also an increase of testicle cancer as well as of deformations of the genital organs in babies. Research in the animal world gives evidence of chemical substances, which work like hormones. Plastics contain such hormoneal effective substances: Could there be a connection here?
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| Chemicals in beauty products |
Already since the 1980s evidence began to mount that fertility disturbances were connected with certain chemicals. Approximately 100,000 synthetic substances are at the moment marketed world-wide. Hundreds of new chemicals are added annually, many of which one hardly knows, how they affect the environment. However so far, thousands of substances are well-known, which are suspected of affecting fertility. These include chemicals, which we inhale, eat or absorb through our skin. And there is no end to the chemical flood in sight.
No Chance for Reproduction:
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| Pike Alligator |
Scientists in Florida already encountered at the end of the 1980s, a puzzling phenomenon: At the Apopka lakes they observed shrinking animal populations. Further Investigation showed modifications in the sex organs with some bird and fish species. In particular pike alligators are concerned: The females do not carry fertilized eggs, and the males have clearly smaller, usually also crippled sex organs. The consequence: The population is threatened with extinction.
The researchers see a connection with a chemical accident in the year 1980 which resulted in chloric insecticide entering the water. Within the following four years the stock of the pike alligator decreased drastically. And that is not it an individual case. Also in other continents disturbances in the sex development or sexual behavior of animals can be connected with specific chemical substances. In the Arctic for example polar bears are more frequently giving birth to hermaphroditical offspring. The cause here is strongly assumed to be due to chloric substances, so-called PCBs or Polychlorinated Biphenyl.
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| Female pike alligator with unfertilised eggs |
Further info on PCBs:
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/tsd/pcbs/index.htm
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| Graphic illustration of hormonal interaction |
Hormone-simulating Effects:
The question arises, how dangerous such chemicals are to humans. Researchers assume that a host of industrial chemicals are intervening in the human endocrine system.
(Here they are referring to very early development of the human embryo, where the greatest danger of hormone affecting influences can occur as a result of chemical poisoning).
Hormones are of central importance to the control of different bodily functions, and for the development of the sex organs. They bind in the Cytoplasma to specific receptors prior to the unfolding of their biological effect (on embryonic development and cell growth). If for example, certain chemicals have occupied these receptors, then the effect of the hormone can be restrained or even completely suppressed. A blockade of the androgen receptor could suppress the biological effect of the natural male sex hormone Testosterone.
Even more risky is however a deception of the endocrine system: Synthetic chemicals can fill the receptors, for example of the female sex hormone oestrogen, and be detected as normal. The chemicals act as sexual hormones towards the body and can lead to feminisation. The biggest danger exists however, in the effect of synthetic chemicals on the early childhood development. Already smallest concentrations can leave tracks - for example to lead to disturbances in the development of sexual organs.
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| Some plastic products in our everyday lives |
Despite the knowledge around, the risky materials with hormone simulating effects continue to be produced and used. Such is the case, that this multicolored variety of plastics without limit to their abundance of chemical content is beyond comprehension. The synthetic blending and mixtures lend different characteristics to plastics: They make them softl or hard - in complete accordance to desire. The chemical compound Bisphenol A plays a large role for the production of hard plastics. It has also been suspected for a long time to endanger fertility. Bisphenol A is world-wide, the most frequently assigned industrial chemical: Over three million tons of it are manufactured annually.
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| Heated plastic facilitates intake of Bisphenol A into the bloodstream |
Particularly dangerous is their application, where the substance comes into contact with food. From aged, porous and scratched plastic, the chemical emanates quite easily. Also with heating up (baby bottles for example) the risk rises that bisphenol A gets into the food chain. Today scientific researchers know that the chemical works on two levels: Bisphenol A not only blocks the receptors of Testosterone, it also strengthens above all the effect of female sexual hormones. Because, like the natural, the chemical messenger also fits well with the appropriate receptor.
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To be continued - I plan to translate the entire content of the video into English. More transcription and translation updates in a second installment. Thank you for your patience. Best Wishes, MM
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