The eye-opener!

Star trek

About five months ago, I was having a conversation with my family on environment and pollution. In between, my brother-in-law mentioned something which left me shocked. To say the least, it also created a sense of curiosity in me.

He was talking about plastic, and how there are islands of plastic in the ocean. But what also left me stunned was the size of these islands.

In the North Pacific Ocean, the islands of floating plastics are almost the size of Africa. That is only in one ocean! There are six more such islands in other oceans. Look at what is being done to our environment. Plastic is a substance that the earth cannot digest. It never decomposes! So, from your toothbrush to your pen, every piece of plastic has toxic substances. Though not mixed, there are chemicals in plastic. You are putting it in your mouth, touching it, giving it to children and using it all the time.

Drinking water too is being exposed to it. All these chemicals leech out when plastic comes in contact with heat, wind and water. These toxins can cause liver problems and hormone dysfunction as well.

After hearing all this, I felt let down, uneducated and cheated. Important things like these are not taught to us, nor are we educating our children about this.

Nobody is telling us about this, nobody is discussing it. So I began to research about it, and what I heard about plastic made my jaw drop, yet again.

So while plastic is having a devastating impact on our environment, if we do not make it mandatory for manufacturers to come up with some kind of return policy, the next generation is going to face something more serious than an atom bomb. The NGT had put it up to the Supreme Court and this was one of the observations they had made.

What I read about plastic alarmed me. The basic facts about plastic, once you know about them and think about them, makes you think about what you are doing with your life and that of your children.

Some time back, I had received a message that when you sit in your car, roll down your windows and turn on the air conditioning, you need to keep your windows open for the first couple of minutes. This is to ensure that the initial air goes out of the car as it is carcinogenic. I didn’t understand it then.

Now that I have come to know of all these alarming facts about plastic, I have realised that there is truth in it.  The interiors of cars are made of plastic, which in turn are made of toxic chemicals. In the summer heat, your car is exposed to the sun for hours.

These chemicals may leech out, and when you turn on your air conditioning and have your windows up, the chemicals in this air go into your system. You are inhaling them and therefore, you will cause harm to yourself.

Earlier, I would use plastic wrap to wrap sandwiches and other food lying around in the kitchen, but now I don’t. It is important to understand what chemicals are used to make the shrink wrap, and you won’t possibly ever use this again — for any of your food.

I find it bizarre that today, people are still using these wraps to wrap their food. I say Google it for yourselves, see what comes up on your screens and then decide what you would like to do!

Juhi Chawla (Actor)