To the editor: The EPA’s proposal to not monitor microplastics in consuming water is a failure to do the naked minimal and a clear concession to the plastics trade, which has voiced its opposition to microplastics rules in varied types (“After bold pledge, EPA shelves microplastics testing in U.S. drinking water,” June 30).
People are paying consideration. A recent Ocean Conservancy poll discovered that in solely three years, consciousness of microplastics jumped 33% whereas almost 9 in 10 People are involved about microplastics impacts.
They usually’re proper to be involved. Microplastics have been discovered almost in all places 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 getting 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.
