The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Childhood Exposure to Plastic Raises Lifetime Health Risks - Scientists analyzed decades of research into the impact on pregnant mothers, fetuses, and children of three chemical additives — phthalates, bisphenols, and perfluoroalkyl substances — that make plastic more flexible, more rigid, or more resistant to heat or water. Early exposure to these chemicals can leave children at greater risk of heart disease, obesity, infertility, and asthma well into adolescence and adulthood. Plastic additives are also believed to affect the development of the brain, with studies linking the chemicals to lower IQ, ADHD, and autism. The widespread use of plastic is exacting a deepening toll, with Americans paying an estimated $250 billion yearly to treat ailments linked to plastic.

Scientists Resurrect 40,000-Year-Old Microbes from Alaskan Permafrost. What They Found Raised Worries About the Future of a Warming Arctic - Roughly 40,000 years ago, microbes went dormant in a rock-like layer of frozen soil near the future site of Fairbanks, Alaska. Now, researchers have successfully “reawakened” the tiny creatures, raising concerns about how those microbes could increase greenhouse gas emissions in a warming Arctic.

The Butterflies of Marinduque: Small Wings, Big Changes - Marinduque supplies about 85% of the Philippine’s butterfly pupae exports. Beyond trade, butterflies have become symbols of livelihood, culture, and conservation for the island.

A simple fatty acid could restore failing vision - Retinal polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation reverses aging-related vision decline in mice….and systemic lipid supplementation could potentially counteract the effects of age on the immune system. But will in work in humans…that’s still TBD.

Is it possible to lose weight on an 'Ozempic' diet? – Study findings suggest that there's some kind of mechanism we can tap into to restore healthy eating without drugs by limiting the sense of reward and achieving a sense of satisfaction without overeating.

This Chilling Recording Reveals Large Bats Catching, Killing and Eating Birds Midflight – How the greater noctule bat, the largest bat species in Europe, catches and eats its prey.

Fentanyl overdoses among seniors surge 9,000% — A hidden crisis few saw coming - Fatal overdoses among adults 65 and older involving fentanyl mixed with stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines have risen dramatically, climbing 9,000% in the past eight years. The rate now mirrors that seen in younger adults. The rise in fentanyl deaths involving stimulants in older adults began to sharply rise in 2020, while deaths linked to other substances stayed the same or declined. Cocaine and methamphetamines were the most common stimulants paired with fentanyl among the older adults studied, surpassing alcohol, heroin, and benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium.

Billions of bacteria lurk in your shower, just waiting to spray you in the face - should you be worried? - For most people the risk of catching a bug from your shower head is low, particularly if you are using it frequently. Running the shower for 60-90 seconds, allowing it warm up before stepping under the spray, also means it is also doing some useful work in that time, flushing out many of the microbes. This is particularly advisable after a holiday or any long gap between using the shower. Regular cleaning by running very hot water through the shower, along with descaling your shower head or soaking it in lemon juice can help to disrupt the microbes living there and control the size of biofilms.

Dolphins may be getting Alzheimer’s from toxic ocean blooms - Dolphins washing up on Florida’s shores may be victims of the same kind of brain degeneration seen in humans with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers discovered that cyanobacterial toxins—worsened by climate change and nutrient pollution—accumulate in marine food chains, damaging dolphin brains with misfolded proteins and Alzheimer’s-like pathology. Since dolphins are considered environmental sentinels for toxic exposures in marine environments there are concerns about human health issues associated with cyanobacterial blooms. In 2024, Miami Dade County had the highest prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the United States.

Nigeria, a Major Oil Producer, Sees Beginnings of a Solar Boom - For Nigerians, the cost savings from ditching diesel mean that a solar panel pays for itself within six months. Homeowners who can afford the up-front costs are installing rooftop solar in large numbers, while some villages are setting up community solar and battery projects. Solar is making huge gains in Nigeria, with imports of Chinese solar panels growing by two-thirds between June 2024 and June 2025. n Pakistan, high fuel prices, a byproduct of the Ukraine war and the loss of a fuel subsidy, have spurred the mass adoption of solar.

Stunning Microscope Videos Highlight Self-Pollination, Algae and Tumor Cells in the Nikon Small World in Motion Contest – The first and fifth were my favorites of these short videos.

I have been recycling for a long time…starting out when newspapers and cans (separately) were the only items that could be recycled. By the time we moved from Maryland, the county where we lived supplied recycle bins for everyone; the cost was included with trash service. The items we recycled included cardboard, paper, glass jars/bottles, tin cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles/jugs, and milk cartons/juice boxes. We always had more in the recycle bin than in the trash bin and that seemed true for everyone in our neighborhood.

When we moved to Missouri, the curbside recycling was an added cost beyond trash pickup and we quickly discovered that not as many people recycled. The list of recyclables did not include glass or milk cartons/juice boxes. The local recycling center accepts glass, so we periodically take glass there. The milk cartons/juice boxes go into the trash. We still have more in our recycling bin than in trash. The bulk is cardboard/paper, but the next is plastic…followed by tin/aluminum cans.

Focusing in on the plastic that is in our recycling bin….

There are soft drink bottles…but those will be going away shortly because I will either stop drinking soft drinks or buy them in aluminum cans.
There are milk jugs. I buy milk in jugs rather that cartons because the jugs can be recycled. There are not plastic free options for milk since even the cartons have plastic coating them.
There are a few cleaned-out bottles with caps. It is not as clear that these plastics are always recycled; for that reason, I am actively trying to reduce/eliminate them. I have already eliminated laundry detergent (buying laundry sheets in paper packaging instead). I sometimes don’t recycle bottles that held products that are hard to clean out (peanut butter, for example) and plan to buy those things in glass from now on which is more reliably recycled. I also am experimenting with DIY toilet bowl cleaner (soda, vinegar, essential oil) rather than buying the bottled version.
Plastic bags are collected and taken back to stores that accept them for recycling; I am skeptical that they are recycled but it is challenging to find out what really happens to them. They are usually not plastic shopping bags these days since we use reusable bags so frequently. They are bread bags, plastic from around soft drinks (although we are getting better at avoiding that), plastic bags that held food (popcorn, produce), packaging from clothing purchases, air ‘pillows’ from packaging, toilet paper packaging). I am overtly trying to reduce or eliminate this type of material even though it is supposedly recycled.

Even with all the effort I put into recycling of plastic – a lot ends up in the trash because it is not recyclable and even some of the plastic that enters the recycling process ends up in landfills because it is cheaper to make new plastic rather than to process recycled plastic!

We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic crisis! Read The May 2022 report The Real Truth About the U.S. Plastics Recycling Rate from Beyond Plastics. It documents a recycling rate of just 5-6% for post-consumer plastic waste in the U.S. for 2021. The report also reveals that while plastics recycling is on the decline, the per capita generation of plastic waste has increased by 263% since 1980. The failure of plastic recycling is in contrast to paper which is recycled at 66% (2020 figure per American Forest and Products Association). High recycling rates of post-consumer paper, cardboard, and metals proves that recycling works to reclaim valuable natural material resources. It is plastic recycling that has always failed as it has never reached 10% even when millions of tons of plastic waste per year were counted as recycled when exported to China.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts