There's a lot to be aware of: Offgassing, fire retardents and waterproofing. Virtually all modern products from building materials to consumer-landfill 'stuff'. Scents. Sprays. Chemicals. Microplastic deliberately put into makeup (and apparently some pill capsules) Burning anything, anywhere, ever. Nothing 'blows away', it circles the planet, poisoning land, air and water, as well as all forms of biodiverse life.
Microplastics matter. A lot. In '24(?) (I can't at the moment look it up, but it was widely reported, and appears to have been accepted as sound), a reputable study took autopsy samples of various human organs, that had been left from some research eight years earlier. Using the latest methods of analysis, they measured exactly how much microplastic each sample contained.
Next, they obtained matching samples, from the latest autopsies, in other words, eight years apart, and did exactly the same measurements on the newest samples.
They found in both sets of results, every major organ contained microplastic.
That applied from the neo-natal autopsies, to the elderly ones. In other words, unlike previous self-poisoning, such as tobacco, or coal-smoke, the effects don't build up in the individual over decades, leaving the youngest apparently unharmed. The placenta feeds microplastic-filled blood to the baby before birth.
One surprise was that the microplastic accumulation was higher in the brains, than in any other organs. In other words, microplastics preferentially accumulate in human brain tissue, though the entire bodies are suffused with microplastic / nanoplastic, circulating in the blood.
The greater worry was that the later samples showed a significant increase. In only eight years, the typical autopsy samples showed plastic invasion of human bodies has risen considerably.
At the same time, it is being realised that nothing, including organic food, or meadow grass, is free from plastic. The air and the rain contain plastic, which is deposited everywhere from the North to South Poles, and has entered penguin chicks, at the same time it is being taken up into plants, everywhere.
The oil industry is as powerful as the tobacco lobby ever was, resisting all efforts to reduce their output. Both industries use 'greenwash' (at one time, cigarettes were advertised as being good for people with bad coughs, and doctors advised smoking)For decades, that industry knew perfectly well there was a link between tobacco and cancer, and illness of other kinds, but they 'gaslit', supressed any evidence, and then flatly denied most of the harm, including the existence of 'passive' smoking.
U.N. has had a world conference on plastic pollution, and the need to reduce production. But the oil producing nations refused to cooperate, and the conference ended today with nothing achieved.
The industry won't stop churning plastic out. Governments won't introduce any laws to stop constantly increasing pollution. Consumers are the only ones who can force change.
Consumers can vote with their purchasing power, and just refuse to buy plastic.Especially where it is in contact with food. There is NO need to use plastic. Plenty of firms don't.
(Incidentally, there is NO need to use carcinogens in the form of nitrites and nitrates, to 'cure' pork products. Plenty of firms don't, including the 'Naked' range, which is extremely popular, though inexplicably it doesn't deal with organic bacon, and those who produce that, still insist on spreading carcinogens on it, then wrapping it in plastic, then heat-sealing the plastic, just to maximise the tainting of the food)