Anonymous

Bjorn Beeler of the International Pollutants Elimination Network said it plainly:

“You have no idea what’s around you, and you’ve not really given consent. We are the canary. Everyone’s a canary.” #OpCanary

Even small steps can lower exposure within days, but personal effort is not enough. Without chemical transparency, global regulation, and removal of corporate veto power, humanity remains the test subject in an uncontrolled chemical experiment that is leading to our extinction. #OpCanary

What you can do to protect yourself:

Use glass or stainless steel for food and drinks.
Avoid microwaving or dishwashing plastics.
Choose silicone or wooden toys.
Improve home ventilation.
Check skincare and cleaning labels for phthalates and bisphenols.
#OpCanary

Chemical exposure today determines public health, fertility rates, and disease patterns for decades. Every additional ton of plastic produced now locks in future medical and environmental costs. #OpCanary

Regulations exist in name only. BPA and certain phthalates are banned in baby bottles, but replaced with near-identical compounds that are equally toxic, a cycle scientists call “chemical whack-a-mole.” #OpCanary

Factory workers, waste pickers, and recycling laborers especially in especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, face the highest exposures with the fewest protections, and less access to medical care for when they become ill from exposure. #OpCanary

By 2025, U.S. plastic production rose over 30% from 2017. The Gulf Coast became a petrochemical empire visible from orbit. Its emissions now exceed those of several entire nations. #OpCanary

These corporations argue they are protecting innovation, jobs, and “consumer choice.” In practice, they are protecting a trillion-dollar petrochemical frontier that replaces the collapsing fossil-fuel market. #OpCanary

Industry lobbyists now outnumber environmental delegates at United Nations plastics-treaty sessions.
Proposals for production caps, chemical disclosure, or health limits are watered down before reaching the floor. #OpCanary

Executives from ExxonMobil, Dow, and INEOS gained direct access to the White House. Their lobbyists drafted policy language. Their profits soared. “Regulatory clarity,” they called it. Deregulation, in truth. #OpCanary

Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS founder), personal fortune $17 billion, has financed political campaigns in the UK opposing stricter green regulations. Mark Vergnano (former Chemours CEO) oversaw lobbying against PFAS restrictions in the EU and U.S. #OpCanary

Darren Woods (ExxonMobil CEO) earned over $36 million in 2024, as the company expanded its polyethylene plants in Texas and Singapore. Jim Fitterling (Dow Inc. CEO) reported $23 million in 2024 compensation while Dow lobbied at UN plastics-treaty talks. #OpCanary

Chemours (a DuPont spin-off) and Plastics Europe have fought EU bans on PFAS “forever chemicals.” The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has repeatedly opposed restrictions on BPA and phthalates in the U.S. #OpCanary

ExxonMobil, Dow, and INEOS are the largest plastic producers on Earth. Each has invested billions expanding capacity while lobbying to weaken international limits. #OpCanary

In 2025, Trump’s second term deepened the capture. He withdrew from the Paris Agreement, halted offshore wind projects, and cut NOAA’s climate research by 38%. The EPA began rolling back mercury and arsenic limits. #OpCanary

Under Donald Trump, the petrochemical industry didn’t just survive, it expanded. From 2017 to 2021, over 100 environmental rules were dismantled. EPA enforcement fell to a 30-year low. Chemical reviews were delayed or erased. #OpCanary

Despite the evidence, plastic production is projected to rise 70% by 2040 as oil companies pivot from fuel to petrochemicals. Each ton of new plastic locks in decades of chemical exposure. #OpCanary

The same chemicals accumulate in soil, rivers, and oceans, entering food webs and returning through seafood and drinking water. Microplastics have been found in Arctic snow and human placentas. #OpCanary

Exposure occurs in cities, rural areas, rich and poor households alike. Workers in plastic production, waste sorting, or recycling bear the heaviest load, but no one escapes. Inequality magnifies the harm. #OpCanary

Health costs tied to plastic-related chemicals exceed $1.5 trillion a year globally. Lost productivity, medical expenses, and child-development effects compound into a slow drain on every nation’s economy. #OpCanary

Microplastics add another layer of danger. Humans now ingest about one credit card’s worth of microplastics every week. Particles have been found in lungs, hearts, placentas, and bloodstreams. #OpCanary

Children face the highest risk. Plastic chemicals cross the placenta, meaning exposure starts before birth. Infants and toddlers absorb more toxins relative to body weight and have fewer defenses to eliminate them. #OpCanary

Unlike infectious diseases, these exposures don’t cause instant symptoms. They accumulate quietly, increasing lifetime risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Scientists call this the “silent pandemic” of chemical exposure. #OpCanary

Many plastic additives are endocrine disruptors. They mimic or block hormones that regulate growth, reproduction, mood, and metabolism. Even tiny doses can alter fetal development, fertility, or immune function. Effects appear across generations. #OpCanary

Plastics release thousands of chemicals into air, food, and water. Most people have no idea what they are inhaling, ingesting, or touching. Blood and tissue tests now detect plastic-derived compounds in nearly every human studied. You are already a data point. #OpCanary

A 2025 NYU study linked one common plasticizer, DEHP, to 356,000 deaths worldwide in 2018 among adults aged 55–64. That’s 13% of all cardiovascular deaths in that age group. #OpCanary

There are over 16,000 known chemicals used in plastics.
At least 4,200 are hazardous to human health or the environment. Another 10,000 remain untested. #OpCanary

When the results came back, each reporter had been exposed to an average of 28 chemicals, in just five days.
They came from plastics in packaging, clothes, electronics, cosmetics, and the air itself. #OpCanary

Three CNN reporters in New York, London, and Hong Kong wore chemical-tracking wristbands for five days.
Each band silently absorbed the same chemicals we encounter in daily life, mimicking human skin. #OpCanary

The Plastic Experiment A global chemical crisis unfolds as industry turns inward. Plastic pollution becomes self-inflicted, an autogenocide of comfort, profit, and survival.

Plastics and petrochemicals have become the new frontier of the fossil-fuel economy. Under Trump's deregulation, the big oil industry has taken control of the regulatory bodies meant to protect us, as toxic compounds are now taking over the human body. #OpCanary #EndAutoGenocide 🧵