We hear it everyday, “don’t throw plastic”, “don’t throw away straws”, “start reusing and recycling”, but in reality, do we even care? We create excuses such as “It’s just one straw” or “How can one small plastic water bottle kill me?”. That ‘one straw’ and the ‘one small plastic water bottle’ accumulate to unimaginable heights, and return to kill us. We all want to be activists when it comes to saving the planet, nonetheless hardly any of us will follow what we preach, at least, not until we realize how much it harms us. The worldwide rising temperatures caused by warming oceans, plastic pollution, air pollution and so on, will be the cause of mankind’s death. Yes, that “one plastic water bottle” you threw away might just become the reason for your demise. The human body, our cells and  organs cannot handle the pressure endorsed by changes in the climate. The changes that we, ourselves, created. We, Humans, are killing our one and only mother Earth, and in return, killing ourselves. 

A factor of health risks that we may not put into consideration comes from the ocean. We contaminate the oceans everyday by dumping 13,000-15,000 pieces of plastic each day (Ocean Crusaders). The amount of plastic that we throw into the ocean threatens the conditions of our ocean – in turn our health. Some of these health concerns include waterborne infectious diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera and Hepatitis A or E, harmful algal bloom toxins, contaminated seafood, and chemical pollutants are other concerns (National Ocean Service). In the last five decades alone, the global consumption of seafood has doubled to a staggering 143.8 million tonnes per year (Kelsen, Mike). How does this relate to our health? Experts say that there is 123.9 ± 16.5 microplastics per kg of fishmeal, mainly polythene, and when ingested, exposes us to harmful chemicals (Thiele, C.J. et al.). 

Ocean contamination is not the only reason our healths are shooting down, rising temperatures account for more damage than you think, stay tuned for the next article

By Sanya 🙂

Works Cited

Ocean Crusaders. “Plastic Statistics.” Ocean Crusaders, 16 Feb. 2012, oceancrusaders.org/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/#:~:text=World%20wide%2C%2013%2C000%2D15%2C000%20pieces.

National Ocean Service. “What Percentage of Life Is Estimated to Be in the Ocean?” Oceanservice.noaa.gov, oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-human-health.html#:~:text=Intensive%20use%20of%20our%20ocean.

Kelsen, Mike. “How Many Fish Do We Eat a Year?” Your Fish Guide, 6 June 2020, http://www.yourfishguide.com/how-many-fish-do-we-eat-a-year/#:~:text=According%20to%20calculations%20from%20different,total%20of%20154%20million%20tonnes..

Thiele, Christina J., et al. “Microplastics in Fish and Fishmeal: An Emerging Environmental Challenge?” Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 21 Jan. 2021, p. 2045, http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-81499-8, 10.1038/s41598-021-81499-8.