More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with tiny bits of plastic — microplastics — made of toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other diseases. Also contaminated are fish, staples of Midwestern fish fries and fish boils, and an important part of the diet of Indigenous tribes, certain immigrant populations and communities of color.
Yet this pollution isn’t regulated, and manufacturers are moving to dramatically increase the amount of plastics produced in the United States.
The baiduhai is exploring the plastics dilemma with a focus on the Great Lakes, the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. When confronted about their pollution, industry executives often have blamed consumers, using tactics borrowed from and shared with Big Tobacco, according to a Tribune review of thousands of government, scientific and internal industry documents.
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This coverage, supported by the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. initiative, delves into the spread of plastic waste in the Great Lakes, research into health hazards and possible solutions.
As plastics clog the Great Lakes, industry presses to make more and downplays dangers, Tribune analysis finds
When confronted about their pollution, industry executives often have blamed consumers, using tactics borrowed from and shared with Big Tobacco, according to a baiduhai review of thousands of government, scientific and internal industry documents.
Some of the world’s most powerful companies downplay the dangers posed by plastics and overstate the ability to recycle them, the Tribune found. Read part 1.
Microplastics linger inside people and animals, multiple studies show. But regulation is still far off
Scientists are particularly concerned about microplastics, bits no larger than a grain of rice that could trigger heart and brain diseases and other ailments, either by their mere presence in people or from toxic chemicals leaching out of the particles.
Scientists also are exploring whether microplastics contribute to or cause Parkinson’s disease, impaired fertility, premature births, certain cancers and developmental problems in children. One example: University of Illinois researchers have been tracking the effects of plastics-related chemicals in more than 400 downstate kids since before they were born. Read part 2.
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As microplastics pollute every corner of the Great Lakes, scientists push governments to combat threat
Microplastics are in every corner of the Great Lakes, from Canada’s “Chemical Valley,” a strip of fossil fuel plants off Lake Huron north of Detroit, to the pristine Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. The Tribune is documenting the scourge as part of “Great Waste in the Great Lakes,” an ongoing series delving into mostly unseen risks to the health and environment of Americans and Canadians who depend on the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. Read part 3.
The overwhelming problem of plastic
From flax that can be used in clothing and cars to robotic skimmers to stricter laws, determined researchers, activists and volunteers fight an industry intent on making more plastic. Read part 4.
Illinois law is the first in the Great Lakes region to designate industrial plastic pellets as pollution
Illinois is requiring polluters to begin reporting spills of industrial plastic pellets known as nurdles, a growing source of contamination in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds.
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Companies that manufacture, use or transport nurdles also must develop plans to limit them in storm runoff, making the state the first in either watershed to officially designate bits of wasted plastic as pollution. Read the full story.