India: Recycled plastic items contain dangerous chemicals
Recycling plastic is often touted as a solution to reducing pollution, but this method can cause other health problems.
In India, a study carried out in the capital has just shown that most recycled plastic household items contain dangerous chemicals, and this also affects children's toys.
Plastic toy seller near Bengaluru, March 11, 2021. AFP - MANJUNATH KIRAN
By: RFI Follow
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Plastic bottles, toothbrushes or children's toys.
The NGO
Toxic Links
tested 15 different recycled plastic products sold in New Delhi, and found that of the food items, 2/3 included traces of chemicals such as bisphenol, and 90% of the toys were also contaminated.
A small rubber duck for babies, for example, is one of the most toxic, because it contains a high level of a heavy metal, cadmium.
This contamination is explained by the fact that these objects are produced by poorly controlled factories, which recover all the plastic for recycling, without sorting it.
“
Plastic
furniture contains
certain
chemicals to prevent it from burning.
But you don't want these products in plastic intended for food items or children's toys, because these come into contact with the mouth.
Recycled plastics must therefore be sorted and tested to know what chemicals they contain, in order to make objects according to this classification
,” insists Priti Banthia Mahesh, program manager of the NGO
Toxic links
.
The ingestion of these chemicals and heavy metals can lead to numerous health problems, including cancer.
Read alsoEnvironment: India overwhelmed by plastic waste pollution
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