Elisa Veini & Pearl Heinemans
Annelies den Boer, global health advocate at Wemos, was TV producer Bahram Sadeghi’s first guest in his online program about plastic waste. Literally standing amid all of Sadeghi’s plastic waste, Annelies explained why some plastic items do our health more harm than good.
Annelies: ‘What concerns us in particular is the fact that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the womb or at a young age can interfere with the hormonal system. Scientists and the World Health Organization say that this can result in a range of health problems later in life, like an increased risk of cancer, abnormal brain development, or an increased risk of obesity.’
In 1000 Days of Plastic, and in request of the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, TV producer Sadeghi approaches plastic from different angles. Annelies was invited to the Van Gendthallen in Amsterdam, where Sadeghi displayed his plastic garbage collection – which he collected over the past 3 years.
Annelies about the video: ‘This was a really fun opportunity to tell our story about endocrine-disrupting chemicals in a different way. You really get a sense of the scale of the plastic waste problem when you’re surrounded by all that plastic garbage. The harmful chemicals that are found in disposable plastic are a part of that problem.’
Watch Annelies in 1000 Days of Plastic (Dutch):
Read about what Wemos does on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs)