Toxicity of microplastics are worse than previously thought.

For decades researchers studying the consequences of microplastics in our environment have focused their efforts on the impacts to marine animals due to ocean pollution.

Currently, new research is revealing the potential for serious health consequences, including behavioral changes and cognitive decline in land mammals and humans resulting from the prevalence of microplastics in the environment. These findings are well-documented online and elsewhere for those who care to educate themselves.

In the United States, eight states - including California, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Maine, Oregon, and Vermont - have passed legislation banning single-use plastic bags in stores, the greatest source of microplastic pollution in our environment. In New Jersey, retail stores, grocery stores and food service businesses may not provide or sell single-use plastic carryout bags and polystyrene foam food service products.

Three of these states are our next-door neighbors, with Pennsylvania lagging far behind the rest of the region in addressing this problem. In our immediate area, many businesses are taking steps to reduce their consumption of plastic bags, while others - including one Monroe County business in particular - continue to dole out plastic bags by the thousands on a daily basis, like penny-candy to hordes of kindergartners.

Many of these bags will wind up on roadsides, clogging gutters and drainpipes, hanging from trees, or getting caught in the antlers of deer trying desperately to shake them off. The polluters in our region know who they are, and nothing short of legislation and/or organized boycotts, is going to stop them from continuing.

Juliet Perrin

Albrightsville