Styrofoam: More Harmful than Helpful<br />Assist. Prof. Malik Mustafa Mohammed<br /><br />Summary<br />Going green has become increasingly trendy throughout the nation. From reducing plastic bag usage to replacing plastic water bottles, people have been taking steps to become more environmentally conscious. The next step is to ban polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam, a harmful product still prevalent in our society. Banning Styrofoam is as easy as replacing canvas bags with plastic ones.<br />Styrofoam is a non-biodegradable substance used for insulation, most commonly found in keeping our beverages hot and storing our leftovers. However, its harmful effects outweigh its cheap and convenient use, drawing significant cause for a ban on polystyrene. To make our community greener, we will strive to eliminate the use of Styrofoam at Rutgers through communication with the purchasing department and various deans.<br />What is Polystyrene?<br />Styrofoam is the trade name for polystyrene foam; a material used for insulation in housing. Polystyrene is a petroleum-based plastic made from the styrene monomer. It is lightweight, comprising approximately 95% air. It has good insulation properties and is used in products such as cups to keep beverages hot and in packaging materials to keep products safe during shipping.<br />Why the bad reputation??<br />Environmental Effects<br />Due to its commonality, polystyrene has contaminated and affected both the environment and our health. When thrown away as trash, polystyrene cannot biodegrade or breakdown via other means, remaining in the environment for thousands of years. Keep in mind; plastics cover 25-30 percent of space in landfills. Foam polystyrene has been found in water and wind, especially at shores, making up for a considerable amount of marine debris. This also affects animals in the wild, due to broken down bits of polystyrene obstructing their airways, contaminating their resources, and causing cancer and digestive problems.<br />The polystyrene manufacturing process is the 5th largest creator of hazardous waste. The process of making polystyrene pollutes the air and creates large amounts of liquid and solid waste.<br />Polystyrene is manufactured with HCFC-22, a greenhouse gas that affects the ozone layer, and petroleum, a non-sustainable and highly polluting resource. HCFC-22, a type of CFC, depletes the Earth's ozone layer 10 miles or higher in the sky. Polystyrene foam food packaging, which was made with CFCs in the U.S., released 3.9 tons of CFCs in 1985, and nonfood-related polystyrene materials released an additional 3.9 tons. The National Bureau of Standards Center for Fire Research identified 57 chemical byproducts released during the combustion of polystyrene foam. Collected polystyrene cups are not remanufactured into cups, but into other products, such as packing filler and cafeteria trays. This means that more resources will have to be used, and more pollution created, to produce more polystyrene cups.ix The use of hydrocarbons in Styrofoam manufacturing releases hydrocarbons into the air at ground level; there, combined with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight, they form ozone, a dangerous air pollutant at ground level.ix<br />Health Concerns<br />Styrene, a component of polystyrene, poses a threat to human life as well as the environment. Styrene can leech into food from polystyrene food ware. Foam cups lose weight during the time they are at used (meaning styrene is ingested by the consumer), with tea with lemon producing the greatest decrease in weight. In 1991, the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station reported that volatile styrene monomers were found in shells of eggs after being stored for two weeks in polystyrene containers at supermarkets. Dishes cooked with these contaminated eggs contained seven times more ethyl benzene and styrene compared to those prepared from fresh farm eggs not packaged in polystyrene. Thus, the use of polystyrene packaging raises suspicion that these dangerous compounds can travel through porous shells and into edible egg portions.<br />The ubiquity of polystyrene food-ware usage has resulted in traces of styrene being commonly found not only in the food we consume, but in our bodies as well. Styrene has been found in 100<br /> <br />A percentage of human tissue samples and 100 percent of human nursing milk samples were tested. Long-term exposure to small quantities of styrene can cause neurotoxic effects (such as fatigue, nervousness, and difficulty sleeping), hematological effects (including low platelet and hemoglobin values), cytogenetic effects (including chromosomal and lymphatic abnormalities), and carcinogenic effects. Acute health effects typically include irritation of the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract, as well as gastrointestinal effects.<br />Chronic exposure affects the central nervous system, showing symptoms such as depression, headache, fatigue, and weakness, and can cause minor effects on kidney function and blood. Styrene usually exhibits its toxicity to humans as a neurotoxin by attacking the central and peripheral nervous systems. It has even affected the menstrual cycles of women exposed to polystyrene.<br />The manufacturing of polystyrene, which results in diminished ozone and air quality, also impacts human respiratory health. According to the EPA, more than 100 million Americans, mostly residing in California, the Texas Gulf Coast, the Chicago-Milwaukee area, and the Northeastern U.S., currently live in areas that do not meet air quality standards for ozone. The EPA says, "Healthy individuals who are exercising while ozone levels are at or only slightly above the standard can experience reduced functioning of the lungs, leading to chest pain, coughing, wheezing, and pulmonary congestion. In animal studies, long-term exposure to high levels of ozone has resulted in permanent structural damage to the lungs of animals. In contrast, both short and long-term exposure have been found to decrease the animal's capability to fight infection." In other words, prolonged exposure to atmospheric ozone above legal limits might severely damage the immune system.<br /><br />Al-Mustaqbal University – The No. 1 Private University in Iraq<br /><br />