塑料消費(fèi)品中的化學(xué)物質(zhì)有多危險(xiǎn)?

塑料消費(fèi)品中的化學(xué)物質(zhì)有多危險(xiǎn)?

By now, most people know the Earth is overwhelmed with plastic. It drifts in our oceans and swims in our drinking water, piling up in landfills to last for generations. To combat the plastic pollution, you do what you can, taking reusable bags to the grocery store and not using straws. But a new report may make you rethink your plastic consumption completely.

到目前為止，大多數(shù)人都知道地球上到處都是塑料。它漂浮在我們的海洋中，在我們的飲用水中游泳，堆積在垃圾填埋場(chǎng)中，世代相傳。為了對(duì)抗塑料污染，你盡你所能，帶著環(huán)保袋去雜貨店，不用吸管。但是一份新的報(bào)告可能會(huì)讓你徹底反思你的塑料消費(fèi)。

Your plastic yogurt container may contain harmful toxins, but it's not a simple equation. Researchers say the sheer volume of chemicals in various consumer products like this make it impossible to know what's in them. (Photo: Africa Studio/Shutterstock)

Norwegian researchers studied many everyday items — from yogurt cups to bath sponges — and found toxic chemicals in three-quarters of them.

挪威研究人員研究了很多日常用品——從酸奶杯到沐浴海綿——發(fā)現(xiàn)其中四分之三含有有毒化學(xué)物質(zhì)。

"The problem is that plastics are made of a complex chemical cocktail, so we often don't know exactly what substances are in the products we use. For most of the thousands of chemicals, we have no way to tell whether they are safe or not," co-author Martin Wagner, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said in a statement.

“問(wèn)題是塑料是由一種復(fù)雜的化學(xué)混合物制成的，所以我們常常不知道我們使用的產(chǎn)品中究竟含有什么物質(zhì)。對(duì)于數(shù)千種化學(xué)物質(zhì)中的大多數(shù)，我們無(wú)法判斷它們是否安全，”合著者、挪威科技大學(xué)生物學(xué)家馬丁瓦格納(Martin Wagner)在一份聲明中說(shuō)。

"This is because, practically speaking, it's impossible to trace all of these compounds. And manufacturers may or may not know the ingredients of their products, but even if they know, they are not required to disclose this information."

“這是因?yàn)椋瑢?shí)際上，不可能追蹤所有這些化合物。制造商可能知道也可能不知道他們產(chǎn)品的成分，但即使他們知道，他們也不需要披露這些信息。”

It's not easy to isolate the chemicals or the specific plastics. There are more than 5,000 types of plastic, with thousands of types of chemicals used to make them. Researchers are aware of more than 4,000 chemicals used just in plastic food packaging, so the overall number of chemicals is likely much greater.

要分離出這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)或特定的塑料并不容易。世界上有超過(guò)5000種塑料，以及數(shù)千種用于制造塑料的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，僅在塑料食品包裝中就使用了4000多種化學(xué)物質(zhì)，所以總的化學(xué)物質(zhì)數(shù)量可能要多得多。

For the study, which was published in Environmental Science and Technology, the researchers found more than 1,400 substances in the plastics they studied, but were only able to identify 260 of them. They found that 60% of the plastic products had general toxicity; 40% produced oxidative stress (which is thought to be linked to cancer, diabetes and heart disease); and 30% had endocrine-disrupting effects (which are linked to cancer and developmental issues).

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《環(huán)境科學(xué)與技術(shù)》(Environmental Science and Technology)雜志上，研究人員在他們研究的塑料中發(fā)現(xiàn)了1400多種物質(zhì)，但只能識(shí)別其中的260種。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)60%的塑料制品具有一般毒性;40%的人產(chǎn)生氧化應(yīng)激(氧化應(yīng)激被認(rèn)為與癌癥、糖尿病和心臟病有關(guān));30%有內(nèi)分泌干擾作用(這與癌癥和發(fā)育問(wèn)題有關(guān))。

Some plastics are safer bets than others. (Photo: Stakes/Shutterstock)

Of the plastics they studied, the team found that the chemicals in polyvinyl chloride (PVC, usually marked as 3s in recycling codes) and polyurethane (PUR) were the most toxic. By comparison, polyethylene terephthalate (PET, usually marked as 1s) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE, usually marked as 2s) were less toxic.

在他們研究的塑料中，研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)聚氯乙烯(PVC，通常在回收代碼中標(biāo)記為3s)和聚氨酯(PUR)中的化學(xué)物質(zhì)毒性最大。相比之下，聚對(duì)苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET，通常標(biāo)記為1s)和高密度聚乙烯(HDPE，通常標(biāo)記為2s)毒性較低。

"Plastics contain chemicals that trigger negative effects in a culture dish. Even though we do not know whether this will affect our health, such chemicals simply shouldn't be in plastics in the first place," Wagner says.

“塑料含有化學(xué)物質(zhì)，會(huì)在培養(yǎng)皿中引發(fā)負(fù)面影響。即使我們不知道這是否會(huì)影響我們的健康，這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)根本就不應(yīng)該出現(xiàn)在塑料制品中，”瓦格納說(shuō)。

And researchers point out that it's not easy to know what you're looking for. For example, they tested four different yogurt containers and found toxic chemicals in just two of them.

研究人員指出，要知道你在尋找什么并不容易。例如，他們測(cè)試了四種不同的酸奶容器，發(fā)現(xiàn)其中只有兩種含有有毒化學(xué)物質(zhì)。

Although this sounds disheartening for people who want to make safe, informed shopping decisions, the researchers have some helpful advice. The first, is obviously, is to cut back on plastic use. Try to avoid PVC, which is labeled with recycling code #3, and plastics labeled as #7, because it's not clear what type of plastics they are made from.

盡管這對(duì)于那些想要做出安全、明智的購(gòu)物決定的人來(lái)說(shuō)聽(tīng)起來(lái)令人沮喪，但研究人員有一些有用的建議。首先，很明顯，是減少塑料的使用。盡量避免PVC，它的標(biāo)簽上寫(xiě)著回收代碼#3，而塑料的標(biāo)簽上寫(xiě)著#7，因?yàn)椴磺宄鼈兪怯墒裁此芰现瞥傻摹?/p>

They also suggest working with retailers and companies to ask what materials and chemicals are in their plastic products.

他們還建議與零售商和公司合作，詢(xún)問(wèn)他們的塑料產(chǎn)品中含有哪些材料和化學(xué)物質(zhì)。

"We need to avoid demonizing plastics," Wagner says. "But given that we live in the plastic age, we need to make sure they don't affect our health."

“我們需要避免妖魔化塑料，”瓦格納說(shuō)。“但鑒于我們生活在塑料時(shí)代，我們需要確保它們不會(huì)影響我們的健康。”