Air pollution masks symptom of throwaway society
A new pollution problem has hit big cities like a brick in the back of the head. Not only is the air a sea of poisonous particles but also city sewerage workers have a new problem in their vocabulary - wetballs. Tens of thousands of masks unthinkingly discarded end up in sewers and stick together as balls of plastic and mucus, soot and snoot.
The phenomenon of why they glue together is not understood but when a worker pincers a hunk of gunk from the passing mire in the treatment plant it emerges from the sucking surface as a sphere, with dangling ear slings identifying it as rolled layers of masks.
The demand for masks is a big boost for suppliers. It is the remarkable highlight of 3M's CEO, Inge Thulin's report to his shareholders. When a $30 billion a year corporation operating in nearly every country in the world headlines its good news with sales of air pollution masks to China, it shows how sick growth fixation can be. The boon for manufacturers of masks came as a surprise and they are scrambling to establish differentials in price, quality, technology and now even in fashion kudos.
