Plastic in the Human Food Chain: Preserving Dignity and Public Health

This essay discusses the pervasive issue of plastic contamination in the human food chain and its implications for public health and human rights. It highlights how the dumping of plastic waste into oceans and water bodies leads to soil and water pollution, ultimately introducing toxins into the food chain. The essay explains the process of how micro-plastics enter the food chain through aquatic animals and the harmful chemicals they leach, causing carcinogenic effects and endocrine disruption in humans. It emphasizes the responsibility of plastic manufacturers and healthcare professionals in preserving human rights by preventing harm and educating the public about the dangers of plastic use. The essay concludes that despite the benefits of plastics, the environmental and health costs are significant, urging healthcare professionals to advocate for reducing plastic consumption and promoting safer alternatives.

Running head: SELF AND COMMUNITY
SELF AND COMMUNITY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1SELF AND COMMUNITY
Plastic in the human food chain
The paper would argue on the topic of plastic in the human food chain and how human
rights and the dignity is preserved by the health care professionals in relation to public health.
Over a few decades human beings have dumped tons of plastics and garbage in to the oceans and
the other water bodies. This rampant dumping of the plastic garbage are causing soil as well as
water pollution (Li, Tse & Fok, 2016). One of the most devastating factor is that plastics takes
thousands of years to decay, due to which fishes and wildlife are becoming intoxicated and the
sources of the plastic toxins are entering the human food chain, threatening the health and the
wellbeing of the human (Rochman et al., 2013). Before focusing on the adverse effects of plastic
in human food chain, it is essential to understand how plastics enter the food chain of human
beings (Law & Thompson, 2014). The plastic micro-particles are being washed away in to the
sewage system from where they are ending up to the rivers and the oceans or in the agricultural
fields in the form of the fertilizers (Seltenrich, 2015). Once the micro-plastics are being
consumed by the aquatic animals, the chemicals and additives originally in the plastic along with
the absorbed pollutants can leach out and the get transferred in to the guts and the tissues (Law &
Thompson, 2014). Plastics can serve as vectors of toxic compounds and can be transferred from
the smallest creature like zooplankton at the base of the food chain, then in to the fish and
eventually to the creatures eating them and culminating in the creatures present at the top of the
food chain like the animals. Furthermore, once in the water harmful chemicals such as
monomers, vinyl chloride, phthalates can be leached in to the water. Again, since plastics are
largely solid and its structure is oily and greasy, it tends to attract hydrophobic pollutants and
toxins present in the water (Li, Tse & Fok, 2016)..

2SELF AND COMMUNITY
The components of the plastic can have carcinogenic effect on the body and can also cause
disruption of the endocrine function. Exposure to BPA and Phthalates can cause disruptions in
fertility, decreases thyroid hormone receptor and may give rise to hypothyroidism (Sutton et al.,
2013). It can also disrupt the normal levels of the sex hormones by binding to the proteins that
normally binds to the hormones like estrogen and androgen (Li, Tse & Fok, 2016).
The human right to health means that each and every human being has got the right to
attain the highest attainable standards of health which includes a clean and sustainable
environment. In spite of the safety guidelines, most of the plastic manufacturers in most of the
cases are unable to ensure that they do not cause harm around the world. Hence it is their duty to
preserve the human rights due diligence to prevent any kind of harm. In most of the cases the
vendors in the market place use PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic carry bags that might settle on
the grasslands and get swallowed by the animals and can accumulate in the dairy products and
the meat.
Health care professionals have to be careful of the greater good and the preservation of
the basic human rights as they are the one that work in frontline to promote health and safety to
the human beings. Although the demand for the plastic goods are growing, but it has to be
careful about the cocktail of the hazardous materials posing adverse health and the
environmental impact (Sutton et al., 2013). Although plastics have revolutionized the health care
field, but being a health care professional one should be aware of the pros and cons of using
plastic. They can at least guide the community to refrain from using plastic carry bags or bottles
and encourage them to use jute and paper bags and glass bottles (Van Cauwenberghe & Janssen,
2014). Health care professionals being a part of the community are responsible for providing
education to the public about the hazardous use of the plastic.

3SELF AND COMMUNITY
Although plastic might cost less money for manufacturing things, but the earth and the
ecosystem have had to pay and will pay a huge price for using plastic, hence it is the duty of the
health care professionals to remain aware of this issue and it can be addressed.

4SELF AND COMMUNITY
References
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Li, W. C., Tse, H. F., & Fok, L. (2016). Plastic waste in the marine environment: A review of
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Rochman, C. M., Tahir, A., Williams, S. L., Baxa, D. V., Lam, R., Miller, J. T., ... & Teh, S. J.
(2015). Anthropogenic debris in seafood: Plastic debris and fibers from textiles in fish
and bivalves sold for human consumption. Scientific reports, 5, 14340.
Seltenrich, N. (2015). New link in the food chain? Marine plastic pollution and seafood
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Sutton, P., Woodruff, T. J., Perron, J., Stotland, N., Conry, J. A., Miller, M. D., & Giudice, L. C.
(2012). Toxic environmental chemicals: the role of reproductive health professionals in
preventing harmful exposures. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 207(3),
164-173.
Van Cauwenberghe, L., & Janssen, C. R. (2014). Microplastics in bivalves cultured for human
consumption. Environmental pollution, 193, 65-70.