The 50-Year-Old Microplastics Warning That Has Come Back to Haunt the Industry

In June 1973, during a hearing on the Watergate scandal erupting around President Richard Nixon, Sen. Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee, uttered the most famous words of his entire career "What did the president know and when did he know it" It turned out that Nixon knew a lot early on, and that led to his resignation from the presidency a little more than a year later.

Since then, a form of that question has become central in investigations of many high-profile scandals, including public health calamities such as those related to leaded gasoline, chlorofluorocarbons, asbestos and tobacco. Regarding the emerging public health calamity surrounding microplastics, we now have an answer to that compound question courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, which gives us the precise date and location…