I outlined in my brief some of the health hazards in what's happening with microplastics and human health. We're even finding microplastics in the placenta, so our babies are currently being born pre-polluted, which is frightening in itself.
There was a large study done by The New England Journal of Medicine that looked at nearly 300 people and found that individuals with plaque in their carotid arteries with microplastics inside of it were at a much greater risk for heart attack, stroke or even death.
A recent preprint article that I also mentioned in my brief looks at microplastic in the human brain. In 12 of the selected samples they studied, those individuals had Alzheimer's or dementia, and they had 10 times more microplastics in their brain samples than healthy individuals. It is absolutely shocking.
What we must engage in is a system of reuse. We're all used to this. We were actually trained by the plastics companies in the 1950s to live in this disposable culture, which I don't think is very polarizing. I think we all agree that creating a lot of plastic waste and garbage is not a good thing, so engaging in a system of reuse is absolutely critical. I outlined a way in which we can scale a reuse system in the brief, and I think that's fundamental.
I very much agree with the first witness, who suggested that it's so obvious and it's just common sense. We have to turn off the tap. Nothing else makes sense.
I'm so deeply troubled by this idea that we can recycle our way out of it, because plastics are not infinitely recyclable. They are not a renewable resource. You're taking a toxic chemical cocktail and producing more of these toxins, and then you're releasing them into the air, into the water and into our bodies, inevitably. In some senses, it is actually better to bury it in the landfill so that we don't end up creating more fuel and more greenhouse gases and releasing more toxins into the environment, not only into the animals but also into our unborn children.