HARMFUL

INVENTIONS
BY HELMAN ANDRÉS MARTINEZ DUARTE
 BATERIES
• Batteries are one of the most harmful products. They can last up to 500 years
and the toxins they emit never end.
• The batteries not only damage the environment, they also damage health and
are capable of contaminating up to 5,000 liters of water. The truth is that
they are very useful, but very harmful, however it is possible to remedy that
with devices that recharge them, so we can reuse them or use them for longer.
• The effects of batteries on health are diverse, since, depending on the amount,
as well as the type of metal that enters the body, can generate different
types of cancer, anemia, lung injury, blood disorders, kidney dysfunctions,
malformations or abnormalities in the fetus, as well as dysfunction in the male
reproductive system.
 AIRPLANE TICKETS
• If the amount of paper used to produce air tickets was reduced, around
270,000 trees would be saved.
• Thousands of trees are cut down for the production of airport tickets, this
causes us to damage the forest hectaries, the animals that live there as much
as us.
 CHOPSTICKS
• Millions of chopsticks are produced daily. With the manufacture of these a lot
of wood is consumed.
• Each year 20 million trees are chopped to make chopsticks. About 4,000
chopsticks per tree, producing a total of 80 billion chopsticks per year. The
forests of China are running out because of the chopsticks. Deforestation is the
cause of sandstorms and mudslides in which thousands have died.
• Deforestationis causing environmental problems. For many this has been the
cause of mud avalanches in which thousands have died. The sandstorms that
have swept large parts of the country are also due to deforestation.
 DISPOSABLE DIAPERS
• Disposable diapers account for 30 percent of non-biodegradable waste.
• THE DISPOSABLE DIAPERS CALLED "ECOLOGICAL" ARE NOT AND ARE NOT
100% BIODEGRADABLE. Those who do not have plastics still carry
polyacrylate gel. Be very careful because many times they will not give you
all the information. For example, they will tell you that a diaper carries corn
starch gel or cellulose but it does not mean that it does not also carry
polyacrylate gel. The vast majority of diapers still carry at least partially this
gel. If you find "ecological" diapers, see if you can not find their name on this
page. Even if it is not there, ask for serious warranties from the seller or make
sure you put in the package or on the manufacturer's website that the entire
diaper is 100% biodegradable. Do not be fooled, both manufacturers and
some unscrupulous sellers are very smart and know very well how to make us
believe something that is not ..
 PLASTIC
• The plastic has become the preferred material of the industry during the last
century, petroleum products, being so flexible and relatively cheap,
generated a massive production that ended up flooding the planet with
plastic.
• Recent studies have documented that at least since the 1950s, more than 9.1
billion tons of plastic have been produced, which is generating an increasing
problem that threatens not only the earth, but also water and air; Because of
these, at least 7 billion are no longer used, that is, they have become
garbage.
 WATER BOTTLES
• Drinking enough water and liquids is part of a healthy and active lifestyle. But there
is a problem: the plastic bottle. Plastic bottles are made of oil: 100 ml is needed. of
oil to produce a single plastic bottle. Not only does production pose a danger to the
environment, but the disposal of waste is also a huge burden.
• If the plastic is incinerated, toxic vapors are produced and thus pollute the
environment. In Spain, 50% of plastic goes to landfills. A plastic bottle takes more
than a thousand years to degrade. In this long process, rain carries toxic chemicals to
the ground. You can think that recycling is the solution: In Spain, 66% of plastic
containers are already recycled. This number sounds good at first glance. But the
truth is that only 7% is used to make new bottles. Most are recycled into lower
quality products, which can not be recycled indefinitely. The renunciation of water
from plastic bottles represents, therefore, a contribution to our environment.
 PURPURIN
• One of the favorite materials of many children is the last to join the list of
household items that may be less innocuous than they appear. When a chain
of nurseries in the United Kingdom decided to dispense with the use of glitter
for environmental reasons, it revealed a fact that some scientists had already
noticed: glitter is nothing but small fragments of PET, that is, a microplastic that
contaminates the aquatic environment like the rest of the microplastics.
• Some experts promote an initiative to ban plastic glitter, while others are
cautious, noting that there is not enough data yet. For those who adhere to the
precautionary principle, biodegradable alternatives are already on the
market.
 WET WIPES
• They began to be an invaluable aid for fathers and mothers when facing the
cloudy moment of the baby's diaper change, but soon they began to reinvent
themselves as deodorants, cleansers, disinfectants and hand soap substitutes,
and even as toilet paper for adults . Wet wipes have become a common item
in any home, but with a dramatic consequence: the fatbergs, immense
accumulations that block sewerage networks and that are composed of 93%
non-degradable wipes thrown into the toilet.
• Sincea bus-sized fatberg had to be extracted from the London sewers in
2013, numerous cities around the world have suffered this problem at even
greater scales.
 COFFEE CAPSULES
• Capsule coffee machines have revolutionized the breakfasts of millions of
people, offering a convenient and practical option to prepare an espresso or
latte with cafeteria quality.
• However, having the cafeteria at home has a cost to the environment: every
year, millions of aluminum or plastic capsules end up in landfills. This
contamination led in 2016 to the German city of Hamburg to prohibit coffee
capsules in their public buildings, at the same time that the exCEO of
Nespresso, Jean-Paul Gaillard, described as "disaster" the pollution caused
by this waste. In response to criticism, the Nestlé-owned company launched a
recycling campaign for its aluminum capsules.
COSMETICS WITH MICROSPHERES
• The plastic microspheres (microbeads) began to be introduced in cosmetics,
cleaning and cleaning products, in the 70s of the 20th century, but it was in
the 90s when brands began to incorporate them in a massive way.
Toothpastes, creams, lotions, shampoos or detergents included microspheres as
the great innovation of the moment to achieve an abrasive effect, replacing
the materials of natural origin used until then.
• However, already in this century, studies have revealed that wastewater
filtration systems do not retain these particles of less than one millimeter in
size and that these microplastics end up contaminating marine habitats and
their trophic chains at a rate of 21 grams per 200 milliliters of product.
 PLASTIC TEA BAGS
• In recent times, several tea companies have replaced the traditional paper
sachet with a mesh one with a silkier feel and an often pyramidal shape.
These new bags are marketed as the option of the gourmet, as they usually
contain larger leaf fragments and even whole leaves. But they are not
necessarily more ecological: many of them are made of nylon or polyethylene
terephthalate (PET), which increases our consumption of plastic. In addition,
and given that it is currently recommended to reuse disposable bottles in a
limited way due to the possible contamination of the liquid, drinking boiled
infusions in the same plastics may not be advisable.
 SOME SOLAR LOTIONS
• Given that sun exposure is widely recognized as a risk factor for skin cancer,
sun protection is a recommended practice by any health authority worth its
salt. But with what should we protect ourselves? Studies undertaken by
ecotoxicologist Craig Downs and other experts have shown that various
ingredients of solar lotions are harmful to marine life, especially oxybenzone,
an ultraviolet filter present in many of these products and that is harmful to
corals.
• In the state of Hawaii has come to consider the possibility of banning these
solar lotions. The problem, according to Downs, is that there is no clear
alternative, since other filters can be equally toxic. Without a doubt, the most
ecological option is ... the shadow.
 CELLPHONES
• They have 2 ways to pollute the environment and can be direct or indirect.
• Indirect: it is based on the construction of them and that is why they need
projects or machinery and this makes them pollute the environment.
• Direct: it is based on the moment of discarding the batteries, since it has parts
of plastic and to degrade lasts hundreds of years.
 PLASMA TELEVISION
• The gas used for the plasma of flat television screens contributes to air
pollution and therefore increases global warming.
• Carbon trifluoride (NF3) is 17,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide
(CO2).
 IPAD
• One of the most worrying comments regarding the use of this tablet is that
carbon dioxide emissions are up to 5 times higher than iPHONE or iPOD, and
that in an iPAD life cycle would represent 130 kilos of dioxide carbon. Of
course, this figure would vary according to the use that is given.