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Los Angeles County sues PepsiCo, Coca-Cola over role in plastic pollution 'crisis'

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Friday, November 1, 2024

Los Angeles County announced a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo this week, arguing the soda giants misled the public on the recyclability of the plastics used for its products. In the Wednesday complaint, the county alleged that the companies promoted their bottles as recyclable but knew most of them would end up in landfills and that they cannot be meaningfully recycled without environmental harms. It specifically points to what it says are false claims by Pepsi that it has created a “circular economy” for the plastics it uses as well as pledges by both companies to eliminate the use of virgin plastic, or newly manufactured material that has not been previously processed. Plastic comprises the biggest source of terrestrial litter in the state of California, accounting for seven of the 10 most common products left on beaches, according to the lawsuit. In 2021, 600 billion plastic water bottles were manufactured, which created 25 million tons of waste, most of which was landfilled. “Los Angeles County is committed to reducing the use of plastic and protecting the environment,” Los Angeles County Board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath said in a statement. “Coke and Pepsi need to stop the deception and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems your products are causing. Los Angeles County will continue to address the serious environmental impacts caused by companies engaging in misleading and unfair business practices.” The organization Break Free From Plastic ranks the two companies as among the biggest worldwide plastic polluters, with Coca-Cola generating 3.2 million metric tons of plastic a year and PepsiCo 2.5 million metric tons. The lawsuit comes on the heels of February research suggesting plastics cannot be meaningfully recycled in the sense of being made into fully new products and that the concept of “recyclable plastics” is largely a successful public relations campaign by the plastics industry. That research further found that even when collected for recycling, many cities and municipalities dispose of most of the plastics collected by burning or landfill. The Hill has reached out to PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for comment.

Los Angeles County announced a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo this week, arguing the soda giants misled the public on the recyclability of the plastics used for its products. In the Wednesday complaint, the county alleged that the companies promoted their bottles as recyclable but knew most of them would end up in landfills and...

Los Angeles County announced a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo this week, arguing the soda giants misled the public on the recyclability of the plastics used for its products.

In the Wednesday complaint, the county alleged that the companies promoted their bottles as recyclable but knew most of them would end up in landfills and that they cannot be meaningfully recycled without environmental harms.

It specifically points to what it says are false claims by Pepsi that it has created a “circular economy” for the plastics it uses as well as pledges by both companies to eliminate the use of virgin plastic, or newly manufactured material that has not been previously processed.

Plastic comprises the biggest source of terrestrial litter in the state of California, accounting for seven of the 10 most common products left on beaches, according to the lawsuit. In 2021, 600 billion plastic water bottles were manufactured, which created 25 million tons of waste, most of which was landfilled.

“Los Angeles County is committed to reducing the use of plastic and protecting the environment,” Los Angeles County Board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath said in a statement. “Coke and Pepsi need to stop the deception and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems your products are causing. Los Angeles County will continue to address the serious environmental impacts caused by companies engaging in misleading and unfair business practices.”

The organization Break Free From Plastic ranks the two companies as among the biggest worldwide plastic polluters, with Coca-Cola generating 3.2 million metric tons of plastic a year and PepsiCo 2.5 million metric tons.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of February research suggesting plastics cannot be meaningfully recycled in the sense of being made into fully new products and that the concept of “recyclable plastics” is largely a successful public relations campaign by the plastics industry.

That research further found that even when collected for recycling, many cities and municipalities dispose of most of the plastics collected by burning or landfill.

The Hill has reached out to PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for comment.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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What should we eat to give us better, healthier skin

From carotenoids to vitamins C and E and minerals such as selenium, here are the most important nutrients to slow skin damage

A multicoloured diet can lead to a brighter complexionColdsnowstorm/Getty Images Your skin is under constant assault. Exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, particulate pollution, heavy metals and ozone can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that attack DNA, rupture cell membranes and unravel life’s essential proteins. Perhaps the most harmful are UV rays, which generate ROS as well as disrupting DNA directly. The human body can mop up ROS and neutralise them, but it needs molecules found in fruit, vegetables and leafy greens to do so. Carotenoids are among the nutrients that have been most extensively studied for these benefits. These are the pigments that give the likes of pumpkins their bright colour. “They are very good antioxidants and they are particularly good at neutralising singlet oxygen [a type of ROS],” says Jean Krutmann at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany, who recently analysed 50 years of data from human clinical trials involving carotenoid supplements. “The carotenoids catch them and neutralise them before they can do damage.” These substances are best at protecting against longer wavelengths found in UVA light. UVA penetrates the deepest layers of the skin, generating ROS that can cause skin ageing, wrinkling and cancers. Carotenoids can’t prevent the direct DNA damage caused by the rays themselves though, meaning they can’t be considered a replacement for sunscreen. Good dietary sources include carrots and tomatoes. To get the greatest benefits, however, Krutmann recommends taking carotenoids as a nutritional supplement, especially if you drink alcohol, which depletes antioxidants in your skin. Nutrients for skin Besides carotenoids,…

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Pollution exposure linked to mental health hospital admissions, says study

Researchers from St Andrews found rise in nitrogen dioxide exposure associated with higher admissionsExposure to air pollution is linked to an increased risk of hospital admission for mental illness, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind.The research, involving more than 200,000 people in Scotland, found an increase in exposure to nitrogen dioxide in particular was associated with a higher number of people being admitted to hospital for behaviour disorders and mental illnesses. Continue reading...

Exposure to air pollution is linked to an increased risk of hospital admission for mental illness, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind.The research, involving more than 200,000 people in Scotland, found an increase in exposure to nitrogen dioxide in particular was associated with a higher number of people being admitted to hospital for behaviour disorders and mental illnesses.Previously published research on the health effects of long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has tended to emphasise deaths rather than hospital admissions, and physical, rather than mental, ill health, the researchers said.The study found that air pollution was linked to increased risks of hospital admission for mental health, as well as physical illness.Stricter environmental restrictions would benefit millions of people and curb the impact on secondary care, the researchers said.Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad of the University of St Andrews, who led the study, said policies to tackle air pollution and a shift to renewable energy could help ease the burden on hospitals of people with both physical and mental illnesses in the long term.“Policies and interventions targeting air pollution emissions such as zero-emission zones or incentives for renewable energy in transportation and energy production sectors could help ease the hospital-care burden in the long term both locally and globally.”The analysis of data tracked from Public Health Scotland examined four key pollutants between 2002 and 2017 and the impact of ambient air pollution.Researchers drew on individual level data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, which represents 5% of the Scottish population and includes demographic information from linked censuses.In all, 202,237 people aged 17 and above were included in the research, which was published in the open access journal BMJ Open.Their health and hospital admissions for cardiovascular, respiratory, infectious diseases, mental illnesses or behaviour disorders were tracked from Public Health Scotland data.They were linked to levels of four pollutants from road traffic and industry: nitrogen dioxide (NO2); sulphur dioxide (SO2); particulate matter diameter of at least 10μm (PM10); and small particulate matter of 2.5μm or less (PM2.5) per 1km2 in each person’s residential postcode.skip past newsletter promotionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionAverage cumulative exposure to air pollution was strongly associated with higher rates of hospital admissions, both for mental and physical illnesses. Higher cumulative exposure to NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 was associated with a higher incidence of hospital admissions for all causes.Ioannis Bakolis, a professor of public mental health and statistics at King’s College London who was not involved with the study, said the “large-scale” data was “appropriately analysed” and provided further evidence on the link between air pollution and mental health.Research has previously shown how people who spend their childhood in areas with high levels of air pollution may be more likely to later develop mental disorders.But a study by researchers in the US and Denmark has suggested a link between air pollution and an increased risk of mental health problems, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and personality disorders.Between 1% and 2% of the UK population have bipolar disorder in their lifetime, with similar figures for schizophrenia. It is estimated that about 5% of people in the UK have a personality disorder at any one time.

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Supreme Court dismisses constitutional claim in California air pollution case

Supreme Court dismisses a red-state constitutional claim that targeted California's power to fight air pollution.

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a red-state constitutional challenge to California’s special authority to fight air pollution. Over a dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas, the justices turned away an appeal from Ohio and 16 other conservative states, which asked the court to rule “the Golden State is not a golden child.”While Monday’s brief order closes the door on a constitutional challenge to California’s anti-pollution standards, the court on Friday cleared the way for a different, more targeted legal challenge.The oil and gas industry is suing over the state’s “zero emissions” goals for new vehicles, arguing California’s special authority to fight air pollution does not extend to greenhouse gases and global warming. A lower court had dismissed that suit on the grounds the oil producers had no standing to sue. Their complaint was they would sell less fuel in the future. On Friday, the justices agreed to reconsider that ruling early next year. They could clear the way for the suit to proceed.Monday’s related order narrows the legal grounds that the industry can use to challenge California’s rule, assuming it eventually wins standing.The incoming Trump administration is likely to intervene on the side of the challengers. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had urged the court to turn down both appeals. They said California’s strict emissions standards are designed to fight smog and other air pollution as well as greenhouse gases. They argued that Congress had ample authority under the Constitution to set special rules for problems in different states. Since early in American history, they said Congress approved special customs duties for some states or rules involving tribes relations.In challenging California’s authority, Ohio’s Atty. Gen. David Yost pointed to the court’s 2013 decision that struck down part of the Voting Rights Act on the grounds it violated the principle of equal state sovereignty. When Congress adopted national air pollution standards in 1967, it said California could go further because it was already enforcing strict standards to combat the state’s worst-in-the-nation problem with smog.Ohio and red states say this special authority violates “core constitutional principles because no state is more equal than the others. And Congress does not have the general power to elevate one state above the others....Yet in the Clean Air Act, Congress elevated California above all the other states by giving to the Golden State alone the power to pass certain environmental laws.”Without commenting, the justices said they would not hear the constitutional claim.The Environmental Defense Fund hailed the court’s announcement.“California’s clean car standards have successfully helped reduce the dangerous soot, smog, and climate pollution that put all people at risk, while also turbocharging clean technologies and job creation,” said Alice Henderson, lead counsel for its clean-air policy group.

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Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution May Hurt Baby's Brain

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Dec. 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Air pollution could be harming the brain development of children...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Dec. 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Air pollution could be harming the brain development of children before they are even born, a new study warns.A 10 parts-per-billion increase in ozone exposure during the second trimester of pregnancy was associated with a 55% increased risk of intellectual disability among children compared to their siblings, researchers found.“Ozone exposure during pregnancy is a clear risk factor for intellectual disability,” said lead researcher Sara Grineski, a professor of sociology with the University of Utah.“We were particularly struck by the consistency of the findings across all trimesters and the strength of the sibling-based analysis,” Grineski added in a university news release.For the study, researchers analyzed data drawn from the Utah Population Database, a long-term research project into genetics and health among Utah residents. The team linked data on children with intellectual disabilities born between 2003 and 2013 to county-level daily estimates of ozone exposure gathered from the U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyIn particular, the data allowed researchers to compare siblings born with different levels of exposure to ozone pollution, researchers said.“Sibling designs allow us to control for some of these population factors that just would be really challenging to do,” said researcher Amanda Bakian, a research associate professor of psychiatry with the University of Utah’s Huntsman Mental Health Institute. “It just gives another layer of robustness of rigor to this study.”Ozone is a harmful air pollutant caused when sunshine prompts a chemical reaction in airborne nitrogen and volatile organic compounds emitted from cars, power plants, refineries and other sources, researchers explained in background notes.Ozone pollution is an increasing summertime hazard, particularly in the face of global warming, researchers said.The second trimester showed the strongest associations between ozone exposure in the womb and a child’s future brain development.During the second trimester, the fetal brain undergoes rapid growth, with neurons developing at a rate of 250,000 per minute, researchers said.Federal health standards for ozone exposure is 70 parts per billion, researchers noted.A 10 parts-per-billion increase in average ozone levels was associated with a 23% increased risk of intellectual disability when kids were compared to the population at large, and 55% higher when compared to their siblings, results show.“When it comes to intellectual disability, we have a prevalence estimate of about 1.3% or so, and that has been pretty consistent over time,” Bakian said.“That’s 1.3% of the kids that are born in any one year, and we still don’t have a great understanding of all the risk factors that are involved,” Bakian added. “What are the underlying mechanisms that drive this risk? Having intellectual disability has lifelong implications.”Given these findings, places with lots of ozone pollution have a higher risk of kids with intellectual disabilities, researchers said.“Salt Lake City ranks 10th for the most polluted cities in the U.S. in terms of ozone, and 2023 ozone levels were higher than 2022 levels,” Grineski noted.Reducing ozone levels will be critical to protecting the brains of children, researchers said. Clean car standards, transitioning to electric vehicles and improving manufacturing and agricultural processes will help lower air pollution.“We don’t want to neglect these issues related to ozone and cognitive health moving forward," Grineski said. "Our findings here for Utah suggest a troubling association. This is just one study in a sea of papers documenting the harmful effects of air pollution on health.”SOURCE: University of Utah, news release, Dec. 11, 2024Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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White US neighborhoods have more EPA air quality monitors, study finds

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality monitors are disproportionately positioned in whiter neighborhoods in the US, leaving communities of color less protected from dangerous pollutants like particulate matter, ozone, nitrous dioxide and lead, among others, new research finds.Policy and actions the EPA takes to reduce pollution are developed from the monitors’ readings, and communities of color are broadly more likely to be near major polluters. The findings raise questions about whether the agency has enough monitors installed, is properly placing them, and whether conclusions about the safety of the air in some areas are sound.“It seems like an obvious problem, but we don’t see much about … how there’s a measurement error in the gold standard for data collection,” said Brenna Kelly, a University of Utah doctoral student and study co-author. “It’s how we establish thresholds for safety, and who’s going to be susceptible to exposure to air pollution.”The researchers checked the position of nearly 8,000 EPA monitors nationwide and compared their locations with census block data.The study consistently found a lower average of monitors for particulate matter, ozone, nitrous dioxide and lead across all non-white groups. The chemicals are linked to a range of health effects like asthma, chest pain, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity in developing children, and cancer.It found the highest disparity in monitors for sulfur dioxide in Native American and Pacific Islander groups. Sulfur dioxide is a common emission during natural gas and petroleum extraction, oil refining and metal processing. It can cause difficulty breathing and exacerbate other respiratory issues.EPA’s monitors’ positions are determined by federal, state and local authorities, the study noted, though Kelly said there was not a clear process in place for determining where to locate a monitor. Variables such as population density and concentration of polluters factor into the decision.However, the process “can get pretty political”, Kelly added. Communities with more resources and political power may be able to sway the process, which may partly explain the disparity. The issue is also probably part of “institutionalized racism” in the decision-making process – marginalized groups typically receive fewer resources, Kelly added.The EPA’s monitors work by measuring a single point that is meant to be a representative sample of a larger region around it. The agency estimates broader regional air quality by using some form of interpolation, but this approach can leave significant gaps. The spaces and gaps seem to generally be inhabited by communities of color.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionMonitoring could be improved by using satellite imagery, the study notes. It can capture pollution across a region, but it also has limitations and would need to be deployed along with air monitors near the ground.“That’s the big question: ‘How do we get better data?’” Kelly said. “The dream is that we understand air pollution in every area at all times, how people move throughout their environment and how that changes what they’re exposed to.”

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