Plastic unknowns?

Editor, The Commercial: Plastic was a rarity when I was growing up. Grocery bags were paper, fly swatters were metal, and the insulation on appliance wires was rubber wrapped in a cloth weave. So when plastic started to show up, it was a novelty, something to be tested and tinkered.

We soon learned that plastic, in its various forms, did not chew well or taste good, but burned readily, and it burned very hot, and was in no hurry to stop burning. Styrofoam cups quickly turned to slag, and ping pong balls went almost as fast as flash paper. Hard plastic required more heat but, once melted, displayed those qualities.

All too soon, plastic began to displace the natural materials upon which we had relied for years, dominating almost every aspect of industry, whether we wanted it or not. Then it flooded the landfills.

More recently, scientists have introduced us to the presence of microplastics, teeny-tiny molecules that have presumably become as pervasive as the original material. They have been found in the silt on the ocean floor, and the sand of remote uninhabited islands. Researchers are even postulating, since plastic has seemingly become a part of the atmosphere, that these miniscule pollutants may play a role in an increase in respiratory ailments.

Even more concerning is what we don’t know. We know where the current flows and where the wind blows, but we do not know just how much of these particulates they carry. Does it accumulate in certain spots? Is it drawn to some areas more than others, riding the tides to kill nutrients that feed fish? Or is it sucked into hotspots, to wildfires, say, where it could raise the temperature of a blaze and prolong its life, making the flames harder to extinguish?

I have little doubt that scientists are already studying some of these matters, as much out of curiosity as anything else. It would be beneficial, though, if industry would take note, acknowledge them and devise some solution, or a plan of action, before the ocean becomes barren and skies themselves blaze.

D.H. RIDGWAY, PINE BLUFF