If not, is it something that is a factor in the environment of the post-industrial era, where out-gassing plastics and other factors are part of our daily lives?

NPR: Confronting Misconceptions About Cancer Prevention

It uses the US firm's optical frontplane but adds on its own backplane made out of non-rigid plastics, and then sells the part to device-makers.

BBC: Bend me, shape me: Flexible phones 'out by 2013'

There are a lot of materials in our environment, especially things - chemicals, that leach out of plastics - that we now know, become part of our food, and many of them have hormone effects.

NPR: 10 More Possible Triggers to Obesity

More than just another deal for Dow, the sale of 50.0% of its plastics business to a Kuwaiti state company was part of its strategy to reduce its exposure to the cyclical nature of the commodity chemicals business.

FORBES: Magazine Article

If plastics recycling isn't taking off, that's in part because scrap plastic isn't worth much--and it isn't worth much because handling it consumes gobs of labor, energy and other precious resources.

FORBES: The Guilt-Free Consumer