3 Ways To Reduce Your Plastic Exposure At Home (Without Driving Yourself Crazy)

There are the obvious ways plastic hurts the earth—the fact that only about 10% of all the plastic manufactured in our lifetimes has been recycled, that marine organisms are killed by the millions because of plastic polluting our oceans, and that plastics manufacturing is a major driver of climate change.

But plastics also act on the human body in invisible and insidious ways. Plastic is, of course, made of and with chemicals, many of which are harmful to human health. They leach into our food from plastic containers, especially when heated, and can also get into the body when babies chew on plastic toys or drink from plastic straws.

While there is a whole alphabet soup of chemicals that are harmful to human health, research has shown phthalates and BPA/BPF/BPS to be particularly dangerous. The former makes plastic soft, like the flimsy water bottle you get at the gas station, and the latter makes plastic hard, like a sturdy reusable water bottle that can go in the dishwasher.

These chemicals interfere with human hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, which is why they are commonly referred to as endocrine disrupters. Many scientists and environmental experts have linked the rise of these endocrine disrupters in our environment to disturbances in reproductive function such as declines in fertility, higher rates of miscarriage, and changes to the number and quality of eggs in ovaries. From 1973 to 2011, the total sperm count of Western men dropped by 59%, which makes sense when you know that exposure to endocrine-​disrupting chemicals can reduce levels of testosterone in males.

Shanna Swan, Ph.D., a leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist from Mount Sinai Medical Center, found that pregnant women who were exposed to endocrine disrupters were giving birth to male children with measurably smaller penises and anal-genital distance. In other words, the chemicals that the pregnant women were exposed to lowered the testosterone levels in their male fetuses enough to have physically measurable impacts. Scientists have been observing this exposure effect in male frogs, for instance, for decades, but to see it shown in humans is alarming, to say the least.

If you have the resources to invest in a home water filter, do it. As we have learned from the ongoing disaster in Flint, Michigan, we can't always rely on municipalities to alert us to problems with our water supply in a timely fashion. Not to mention, industrial and agricultural chemicals and pharmaceuticals can pollute your water in ways that are not monitored by municipalities.

This isn't as hard as it sounds because in the past few years, there has been more consumer demand for nonplastic alternatives when it comes water bottles and food containers. This makes it easy enough to find your child a stainless steel water bottle or lunchbox if you're up for it. The experts say that your best bet for food storage is glass, metal, and ceramics.

You should already be in the habit of reading food labels to make sure what you buy is as lightly processed and free from additives as possible. The next step is treating your household cleaners and personal care products with the same scrutiny.

When it comes to cleaning supplies, Swan recommends going through your sprays and cleaners and looking for words like "danger, warning, poison, or fatal." Swap out those harsh chemical agents with products that are made out of easily identifiable ingredients.

The cosmetics and beauty aisle at your local pharmacy is one of the most confusing places around. Because these products are not regulated as tightly by the Food and Drug Administration, their labels can contain misleading language like "all natural!" or "Pure and clean!"—descriptors that from a regulatory standpoint mean diddly-squat.

For personal products, in order to steer clear of harmful chemicals and endocrine disrupters, Swan suggests looking for organic, fragrance-free or safe fragrance, paraben-free, and phthalate-free products when possible.