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Are household chemicals, soaps washing up liquids just as harmful as plastic?
We hear itba lot in the news about plastics and the damage it is doing to our oceans and the life that exists in our oceans, but in some countries, mainly third world countries and possibly developed nations out of towns and cities soap water, washing up liquid bleach, toilet roll papers etc. go into rivers, streams and into the ocean.
How much effect does this cause to creatures living in the river sea and oceans?
Can even one house where these toxic chenicals are used cause much damage to the fish in the river using these chemicals?
5 Answers
- busterwasmycatLv 73 years agoFavorite Answer
They have different effects so it is hard to say what is "worse". The main problem is not an inherent toxicity in most things, it is a toxicity that exists when there is an excess. It is the excessive presence that is the problem.
There are a number of chemicals that are harmful to some extent at even very low concentrations (like dioxins, say), but many of the chemicals we employ daily are not, of themselves, a major problem except when there is too much, and that is pretty well true of everything, even oxygen (something we require but only at proper concentrations).
Your question does not have a black and white answer. Reality is more complicated.
Even whether you live where there is proper treatment of domestic wastewater (sewage) matters immensely to any probable negative impact. Chemicals can be diluted and will react into less "harmful" substances with time and with exposure to systems that promote such changes.
The problem with plastics is basically a case of massive littering, dumping of solid wastes. It is not, as a general thing, a chemical problem. It is difficult to compare the impacts of solids versus chemicals in a general way.
The main problem with human byproducts is that there are so many of us using so much stuff that nature cannot deal with it rapidly enough.
- KanoLv 73 years ago
I believe household chemicals are more dangerous than plastics.
I also believe in time come bacteria will evolve to eat plastic waste, some have already been found.
- Anonymous3 years ago
To say that all plastics or household chemicals are harmful is way to encompassing. As we know very few blondes are dumb. Likewise very few plastics or household chemicals are harmful. The key is how they are used and in what qualities. How they are disposed of is also a very big factor.
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- Anonymous3 years ago
Yes. So don't use soap and be gross all the time. That's why you're really asking isn't it? You want justification to not shower, be lazy, play games all day and pretend the people on the PS4 Network are real friends. Why get a job when it gets in the way of gaming and forces you to shower? Moron. SHOWER! All gamers are idiots.
