{"id":3633,"date":"2019-11-03T17:54:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T11:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/?p=3633"},"modified":"2019-11-03T17:54:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T11:54:30","slug":"single-use-plastic-hidden-costs-of-health-environment-in-bangladesh-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/single-use-plastic-hidden-costs-of-health-environment-in-bangladesh-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Use Plastic: Hidden costs of Health & Environment in Bangladesh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dhaka, 3<\/strong>rd<\/strong><\/sup> November, 2019: \u00a0<\/strong>Every year, about 87,000 tonnes of single-use plastic are thrown away in Bangladesh.\u00a0The findings revealed from ESDO study. Considering the serious health and environment impact, single use plastic needs to be banned as soon as possible. An awareness and consultation workshop entitled \u201cSingle Use Plastic: Hidden Cost of Health and Environment\u201d was organized by Environment and Social Development Organization- ESDO on Sunday at Four Seasons Restaurant, Dhaka.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workshop revealed present scenario of using single use\nplastic in Bangladesh. Former Secretary of People\u2019s Republic of Bangladesh and\nthe Chairperson of ESDO Syed Marghub Murshed graced the event as the Chief\nGuest. He said,\n\u201cPlastic pollution is an immense environmental problem that requires an\nimmediate solution. Government should take initiatives to ban the single use\nplastic.\u201d He said, \u201cThere are enough innovative alternatives that can promote\nand encourage for mass uses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advisor and Head of ESDO technical Committee: Mokhlesur\nRahman, Former Additional IGP, Bangladesh Police, Professor Dr. Md. Abul\nHashem, Former Professor, Department of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University and\nProfessor Abu Zafar Mahmud, Former Professor, Department of\nChemistry, University of Dhaka was present at the\nworkshop. Secretary General\nof ESDO Dr. Shahriar Hossain, and Executive Director, Siddika Sultana and other\nteam members of ESDO were present on this workshop. However, the workshop was\nattended by many stakeholders from different sectors including experts,\nactivists, academicians, policy makers, media and general mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single-use\nplastics are those plastic which can be used only one time before thrown away\nor recycled. Plastics are made up of many chemical components that are released\ninto the environment when improperly disposed. \nIn addition, many types of plastics contain additives. People are\nexposed to these chemicals not only during manufacturing, but also by using\nplastic packages, because some chemicals migrate from the plastic packaging to\nthe foods they contain. Contamination from plastic packaging can give rise to\nthe gradual development of chronic health problems as serious as endocrine\ndisruption, which can lead to cancers, birth defects, immune system suppression\nand development of problems in children. However, serious damage to\nrespiratory, renal and cardiovascular systems is also induced from the\ncontinuous use of chemically contaminated single use plastic products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plastic Teabags release billions of microparticles and nanoparticles\ninto Tea. A very recent study report disclosed that the widespread use and\nmismanagement of plastics has led to a significant environmental burden of\ngrowing concern.  Plastic from consumer\ngoods can break down into microplastics and nanoplastics complicating their\ndetection and quantification. The nano-sized fraction of plastic is\nparticularly difficult to identify in complex organic matrices such as soils\nand foods. Microplastics defined as particles ranging from 100 nm to 5 mm in\nsize and nanoplastics as particles \u2264100 nm in size. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Abu Zafar Mahmud expressed his opinion by saying\n\u201cPlastic pollution is a significant environmental problem. Single Use\nPlastic leached toxic substances gets accumulated in the environment by\ncontaminating air, water and soil, from there humans inhale and ingest these\nand suffer from vulnerable impacts. So immediately we need efficient solution\notherwise we can\u2019t control the flow of plastic pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Dr. Md. Abul Hashem said. \u201cAt every stage of its lifecycle,\nplastic poses distinct risks to human health, arising from both exposures to\nplastic particles themselves and associated chemicals. People worldwide are\nexposed at multiple stages of this lifecycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\ncut down on plastic pollution, ESDO is putting forth recommendations for\nconsumers and for the government.  ESDO\nstrongly recommends that the government of Bangladesh pass a complete ban on\nSUP.  \u201cBangladesh must follow the example\nof India and other nations in banning single-use plastics, or we risk being\noverwhelmed as manufacturers and importers turn their attention on us,\u201d says\nESDO Secretary General Dr Shahriar Hossain. \n\u201cBanning single-use plastics is a necessary move to protect the health\nand environment of Bangladesh. Fortunately, cost-effective alternatives are\nwidely available.\u201d  For instance, straws\nmade up of bamboo sticks are being widely used and manufactured in hilly\nregions of the country.  In Kushtia\ndistrict, compostable ice cream cups are produced from leaves.  \u201cLocal production of plant-based alternatives\ncan provide rich opportunities to increase local sustainable manufacturing and\njobs throughout Bangladesh,\u201d explains ESDO Executive Director Siddika Sultana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Bangladesh banned single-use plastic shopping bags\nin 2002, ESDO notes that the country    has\nfallen behind in regulation since then. \nMost recently, India has announced a ban on all forms of single use\nplastic in October 2019, and seeks to completely phase out single use plastic\nproducts by the year 2022.  The island of\nBali, Indonesia has banned single use plastics including bags, straws and\nStyrofoam as of July 2019.  France is the\nfirst country to announce a total ban on SUP, to be effective from 2020.  London plans to impose ban on the usage of\nsingle use plastics to be implemented from April 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background Information<\/em>:<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, under the leadership of Dr. Shahriar Hossain a few\nenthusiastic people initiated anti polythene campaigning in Bangladesh. ESDO is\nthe first organization initiated\ncampaign against the single use plastic shopping bag in 1990 and organized a\nnation-wide anti-polythene campaign. After long efforts ESDO is\nsucceeded to ban the production and use of polythene in January 1, 2002 in\nDhaka city and March 1, 2002 in countrywide. Now ESDO is focusing on banning single-use\nplastics (SUP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more Information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazma Ahmed <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program Associate, ESDO <\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-mail: nazma@esdo.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile: 01557019412<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhaka, 3rd November, 2019: \u00a0Every year, about 87,000 tonnes of single-use plastic are thrown away in Bangladesh.\u00a0The findings revealed from ESDO study. Considering the serious health and environment impact, single use plastic needs to be banned as soon as possible. An awareness and consultation workshop entitled \u201cSingle Use Plastic: Hidden Cost of Health and Environment\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press_release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3635,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions\/3635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esdo.org\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}