To the editor: The EPA’s proposal to not monitor microplastics in consuming water is a failure to do the naked minimal and a transparent concession to the plastics trade, which has voiced its opposition to microplastics rules in numerous varieties (“After daring pledge, EPA cabinets microplastics testing in U.S. consuming water,” June 30).
People are paying consideration. A latest Ocean Conservancy ballot discovered that in solely three years, consciousness of microplastics jumped 33% whereas practically 9 in 10 People are involved about microplastics impacts.
They usually’re proper to be involved. Microplastics have been discovered practically all over the place researchers have appeared. Whereas scientists are nonetheless unpacking how these particles have an effect on human well being, we all know that in ocean animals, microplastics can disrupt hormones, feeding behaviors and extra.
Monitoring alone gained’t repair the microplastics disaster, however we will’t repair what we aren’t monitoring. With greater than a rubbish truck’s price of plastics coming into the ocean each minute, now is just not the time to place our heads within the sand.
Anja Brandon, Portland, Ore.
This author is director of plastics coverage for the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit.
