The Invasion of Plastic

In ALL of our bodies

When I was very young, we lived in a suburban neighborhood in Yonkers, NY. Plastic was a somewhat new commodity making its way into our lives. I remember the Borden’s Milk Truck pulling up in front of the two story house we lived in. We lived upstairs, so we always knew who was coming down the one way street through our neighborhood. We would get 4 quarts of fresh milk in glass bottles twice each week. The caps on the bottles were made of waxed paper with pleats that secured them to the opening. Sometimes, when it was cold enough, the cream would freeze and push the caps up and they looked like little hats! We would put the empty bottles back in the metal box inside the door down the stairs, and the milk man would pick them up to be sterilized and reused and leave us 4 new ones. Mom would wrap everything in wax paper. There was an art to folding it so it wouldn’t come apart. Items from the store were in glass, metal or waxed paper. Dad had a metal lunch box he took to work every day. My Grandfather told me that glass that couldn’t be cleaned or reused was broken up and used in pavement and made the streets sparkle at times. The waxed paper decomposed into the ground.

Plastic made a slow invasion into our lives almost without notice. It was convenient as it didn’t break as easy as glass or ceramics. As more and more items were being packaged in plastic, they went into the garbage can, which turned into two cans because there was more being thrown away. We moved upstate in 1970 and eventually, recycling came into the picture. Not everything was recycled when it first started.

If you were around during these years, you would likely recall the “Crying Indian Commercial” and the slogan, “Keep America Beautiful”. For a deeper dive into the “truth” of all that, you can go here.

Decades later, we now cannot escape the plastic pollution that is everywhere. From the obvious to the microscopic, we are all infected. My inspiration to write this article came from several studies I have read over the years, and from the Organic Consumers Association to Mamavation and many others in between.

Microplastics are everywhere… Andrew Kaufman 1:06 min

Now I’m going to go back to my beginnings with horses in the 1970’s. We rarely fed the horses any “grain”, like you see today, at the riding stables. They had pastures they were turned out in at night and during the day they spent 6-8 hours walking, trotting, galloping, climbing hills and walking through creeks with children and adults on their backs. On occasion they would get some whole oats. Any kind of a feed dish or bowl we had was made of cast iron, aluminum or a rubber material. Usually we just put the oats on top a flake of hay during lunch break. The feed came in real burlap bags.

So many of us “horse people” receive magazines either physically delivered to our mailbox and/or digitally. Here’s one sample we can look at together. Nearly everything comes in a plastic bag or container!

Not everything gets recycled

This is what we DO see. But then there are the particles we DO NOT see. They never really go away and are broken down over time to micro and nano plastics. You can read more about this on the Organic Consumers Association website. Type in micro plastics in the search box, and there is a list of articles for further reading.

I was lead to Mamavation because of grand kids! They are doing some great research on products that are in our every day lives. As the generations move on they are exposed to more toxins at younger and younger ages. Even before birth.

Let’s get back to our horses. First there is the obvious large plastic bags that can blow in from anywhere. I remember a horse at the riding stable that ate a large thin plastic bag that likely blew in from the road one night. We had no idea she had eaten the bag until a few days later when I saw something strange hanging out of her anus. I put on some gloves and pulled a 3 foot long piece of plastic that was brown out of her. It was a miracle it didn’t kill her. In most cases it does.

According to an NIH study, it’s not just the plastics themselves. As heavy metals are added to polymer products. “Even though heavy metals are naturally present in our environment (e.g., in the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere), their environmental contamination and their exposure to humans have mainly originated from various anthropogenic activities [77].

Anthropogenic [ an-thruh-puh-jen-ik ] definition: Caused or produced by Humans

One of their (heavy metals) primary uses is as additives in polymer products (e.g., colorants, flame-retardants, fillers, and stabilizers) (Table 1 below) during the production process to increase the properties of plastics.”

I remember two of my client horses, a gelding and a mare that died from cancer. Penile and teats (breast). The only two I have ever seen cancer affecting these parts. I cannot say what the cause was, but the above study (in conjunction with other exposures) may have some clues.

Can you think of any products you may use for yourself and your horse that may contain any of these additives and polymers?

According to this NIH Study, there are “effects” on human health. My thought process tells me that there are “effects” on every living being, which includes our horses. I am seeing more and more “mystery” health issues in horses that diagnostics cannot nail down. I am sure there are many contributors. I also strongly believe the plastic problem may be a larger part of the mix than we know.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.