One word: plastics.

What I talk about when I talk about plastic gloves, those endlessly hip mushrooms, and fabric made from algae.

The headline lured me in: “Some fast-food items contain plastics linked to serious health problems, new report shows.” I read it from start to finish growing increasingly disturbed. I placed the story aside to read again later.

When I went back to it, I looked up the study referenced in the article. The study found that pthalates (an industrial chemical)…