“We don’t put our seatbelts on at the start of a collision… We should be buckled in for this entire journey in plastics. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by putting safety first.” Family physician and P‑SNAP member Anne Halsey uses this analogy in her January 26 commentary in the New Hampshire Bulletin critiquing a recent Guardian article that downplays the significance of micro‑ and nanoplastics in human health. She argues that the piece distracts from the strong and growing scientific consensus that plastic production and pollution expose communities to hazardous chemicals, (including PFAS, dioxins, furans, and heavy metals) which are well‑documented to harm health. While research on micro‑ and nanoplastics continues to evolve, Halsey emphasizes that uncertainty should not be mistaken for lack of evidence. For clinicians and scientists, the real “bombshell” is the scale of plastic‑related exposures already affecting communities—and the urgent need for action, not distraction.
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