Campaign launch: Plastics and the hidden threat to your health
On May 3rd the social media campaign “NonHazCity Plastic Diet – plastics and the hidden threat to your health” will be launched.
This campaign aims to push consumption behavior change with the aim to reduce emissions of hazardous substances from plastic products. Products like cloths, toys, sport & bathing utensils, accessories and food contact materials that we buy and use daily, all may contain hazardous substances to some degree.
These plastic products do not only harm our environment, but also our health – especially the health of our youngest. Most plastics are mixtures of polymers that are usually obtained from fossil fuels and a cocktail of additives. Additives contribute to plastic having the desired functions, such as high flexibility (softeners), UV protection (UV filters) or fire resistance (flame retardants). They can cause cancer and other diseases of civilisation and impact our hormone system when leaching out from the plastic goods. They enter our bodies by dermal contact, breathing and via the food we eat.
The society is aware of the issues of plastic wastes on land, in oceans, in dolphin bellies, and even about macro- and microplastic particles in cosmetics or washing out of textiles. Yet, knowledge about hazardous substances in plastic materials and articles has not yet reached most people. With our campaign we would like to add this aspect to the discussion about plastics. Hence, our campaign is not focused only on reduction of plastic use, but looks at the material composition and promotes informed choices and safe handling in the right context.
The campaign will last until 13th June and during these six weeks we will provide a lot of information about potential threats that plastic can have to our health and environment, in which product groups we find it and what can be safer alternatives. We will invite our audience to Quizzes and Self-evaluation of their households, we will involve VIPs and influencers. And we will call for a weekly action all-over Europe to use the app “Scan4chem” for requesting information from manufacturers of plastic goods about harmful substances in these products above legal threshold. The more people will ask from producers or retailers for such information, the more pressure will be put on manufacturers and importers to provide the consumer with such information – or to produce goods without harmful substances.
The campaign is an official EU Green Week partner event and will run in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Russia and many other countries all over Europe.
In case of you would like to receive further information please contact
Baltic Environmental Forum Estonia
Kai Klein, kai.klein@bef.ee
