Are Plastics a Threat to Human Health?

This talk at the Palmerston North City Library was supported by Massey University’s Political Ecology Research Centre; and the Schools of Agriculture and Environment, and People, Environment and Planning.

Abstract: The miracle materials that began to enter our lives in the 1960s and now are unavoidable have a dark side. Some of them are toxic in ways that the chemists that invented them in the 1950s never imagined. Today they contribute to a wide range of hormone-related diseases, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, infertility and neurological disorders, which have become global epidemics. But we know enough now about the mechanisms by which they cause these adverse effects to replace them with inherently safer materials. And help chemists make money in the process.

Bio: Pete Myers (PhD) is founder, Board Chair and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, a not-for-profit organization promoting public understanding of advances in scientific research on links between the environment and human health (www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org). Dr. Myers holds a doctorate in the biological sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA from Reed College. For a dozen years beginning in 1990, Dr. Myers served as Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1991 he and Dr. Theo Colborn convened the Wingspread Conference that launched the interdisciplinary field of endocrine disruption. 1996, Myers co-authored with Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski “Our Stolen Future,” the first book for general audiences to explore how synthetic chemicals disrupt hormone signaling in people and wildlife, contributing to a growing epidemic of hormonally-related diseases and disabilities. Myers has been honored with multiple national and international awards, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Sierra Club, the Laureate Award for Outstanding Public Service from The Endocrine Society, and a “Champion of Environmental Health Research” award from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In 2019 he received a special commendation from the Hawaii State Senate for his work on environmental health concerns.

Health?