Plus: Boeing's CEO, Ohio's governor and more. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a nanoparticle of Bloomberg Opinionâs opinions. [Sign up here](. Todayâs Agenda - [Nanoplastics]( need a guide.
- Boeingâs CEO [nearly cried](.
- Ohioâs LGBTQÂ [backslide](.
- [Drug prices]( are far too wide. I Donât Think I Like [This Little Life]( Justin Bieber and Harry Styles, both made of 99% nanoplastics If you told me Iâd encounter 240,000 nanoparticles of plastic in my lifetime, Iâd say big woof. By now I know that plastic is everywhere. Itâs in my workout [leggings]( and sports bras. Itâs in the [placentas]( of new mothers. Itâs in the [clouds]( over our heads. 240,000 sounds reasonable, considering how inescapable plastic has become. But if you told me there are 240,000 nanoparticles of plastic in a single bottle of water, Iâd start to freak out. Especially considering Iâve been to not one but four Harry Styles concerts, and at each one he did his signature water bottle [spit fountain]( on stage. How can 240,000 of anything fit into a single water bottle, you ask? Nanoplastics â which are plastic particles smaller than a wavelength of light, or one-seventieth the width of a human hair â âpose a greater threat to human health than microplastics because theyâre small enough to penetrate human cells, enter the bloodstream and impact organs,â Bloomberg Green reporter Coco Liu [writes](. And researchers recently found hundreds of thousands of them in water bottles sold across the US, a majority of them tiny enough to weasel their way into our bodies. But before you swear off plastic water bottles completely â is that even possible? â read F.D. Flam, who [writes]( that you should first weigh the risks. âWe are all exposed, in many cases, to far more nanoparticles than are present in bottled water,â she writes. Consider the nanoparticles we already inhale: The gas stove in your home. The e-cigarette in your pocket. The [candle]( you purchased the other day. All of these things are bad for us, some more than others. Plus, âmost of the plastic we consume comes from the larger particles. The smaller nanoparticles, identified in the new study, donât make a significant change in the total mass ingested,â she explains. Alarming headlines donât help, either. âIn the last several years [news organizations]( have been repeating that we eat about a credit cardâs equivalent in plastic every week. That figure, five grams, is dubious,â F.D. says. Although itâs reassuring to know that Iâm not ingesting 52 MasterCards per year, plenty of questions remain. Such as: How many particles does it take to get sent to the hospital? What kinds of diseases do they expose you to? And has anyone actually fallen ill, much less died, because they drank too much bottled water? We need answers in order to make informed choices about our water â and Harry Styles concerts. CEO [Tears Ricochet]( Have you ever seen your boss cry? I havenât. But my boss has never had to deal with the fallout of having one of his airplanes lose a door 16,000 feet in the air. And I hope he never does! When Sarah Green Carmichael first [heard]( that Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun had to hold back his tears while addressing his employees at an all-hands meeting about the Alaska Airlines door blowout, she was skeptical. âOh, come on,â she thought, âJust fix the planes.â But then she watched [the video](, where he blurted out, âI got kids, and I got grandkids, and so do you.â It was an emotional moment that somehow managed to match the severity of the situation without seeming performative. Being a leader has always involved a bit of acting. Think about the over-the-top theatrics of a presidential election. Or the contagious charisma of a Silicon Valley âvisionary.â Whether youâre at the helm of a country or a company, you need to appeal to many different audiences â your employees, your customers, your customerâs customers, your competitors, your financial backers, your blood relatives, even. âIt can be difficult to sound genuine even when the emotion youâre showing is authentic,â Sarah explains. And every situation is different: âChoking back tears because a human being nearly got sucked out of one of your airplanes at 16,000 feet? Arguably appropriate. Crying publicly because you had to [lay off a bunch of people](, as more than one executive has done over the last three years? That plays more as self-pity,â she writes. Striking the right balance can take years of experience. In the last year or so, Beth Kowitt [says]( a slew of companies and startups including [Bumble](, [Lyft](, [Slack](, [Cruise]( and [Stitch Fix]( have all had high-profile founders take a step back to make room for âmore seasonedâ CEOs. âThe gap between what it takes to start a company and run one has never been wider,â she writes. The reality is that a lot of these Silicon Valley wunderkinds werenât prepared to cut budgets or fire employees. âFor some leaders, itâs way more fun to be a peacetime CEO picking the flavors of kombucha at the bar,â Christa Quarles, CEO of software company Alludo, told Beth. Which ⦠yeah! Iâm sure Dave Calhoun would rather be sampling office kombucha instead of apologizing about the gaping hole in his airplane. But heâs gotta [fix those holes](, first. Telltale Charts What, pray tell, is going on with Ohioâs governor? At first, Mike DeWine was all like,âNo guys, we canât be passing a bill that would [ban all gender-affirming care for minors](! Thatâs [bigoted](.â But a week later he was like, âActuallyyy, we gotta do this [executive order]( thingy so that transgender adults canât access the care they need.â All that hem-hawing is [not]( making LGBTQ rights groups happy, to say the least. âIn state after state, Republican lawmakers have targeted, demonized and discriminated against transgender Americans,â Nia-Malika Henderson [writes](. Kentucky teachers, for instance, are now legally allowed to [mis-gender]( their students and call them by their âdead names.â DeWine had a chance to be a trailblazer on transgender rights in Ohio. Instead, heâs just another soldier in the GOPâs ever-escalating culture wars. âAbout a third of adults say they havenât taken their medicines as prescribed [because of the cost](,â Bloombergâs editorial board writes. Although Congress initially went after the drugmakers themselves, it has increasingly targeted the so-called â[middlemen](â at the center of the drug supply chain maze: pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. These managers get a handsome chunk of change for the rebates they negotiate, which incentivizes them to favor pricier drugs. âManufacturers have been known to give the same drug [vastly different prices](, knowing PBMs will prefer the higher option,â the editors explain. But lawmakers should proceed carefully; targeting the middlemen may end up creating more loopholes for the business. Further Reading [Bitcoin ETFs]( are here for real this time. â Matt Levine K-Pop [without the âKâ]( just wonât pop. â Bobby Ghosh Americaâs [oil and gas boom]( doesnât feel like one to workers. â Justin Fox Argentinaâs new president has [a narrow path forward]( to save the economy. â Juan Pablo Spinetto Smaller banks are secretly profiting from [a Fed facility]( that tempers losses on long-term bonds. â Paul J. Davies Bangladesh is [dangerously dependent]( on one export sector. â Mihir Sharma How the worldâs most valuable [learning app]( went from $22 billion to $3 billion in less than 15 months. â Andy Mukherjee Whatever happens in [Taiwanâs elections](, tensions between the US and China will continue to rise. â Minxin Pei ICYMI [Sam Altman]( said [AI do](. Donald Trump [defied]( a judge in court. Cancer is [striking]( more young people. Hertz is [shifting]( back to gas. Thereâs a [measles outbreak]( in Philly. Kickers Feds donât want [highway signs]( to be funny. Pomegranates are making a [juicy comeback](. The yassification of [Lactaid](. (h/t Beth Kowitt) Londonâs [lamp lighters]( may be out of a job soon. (h/t Lara Williams) [Clown heads]( are haunting downtown Boston. (h/t Sarah Green Carmichael) The Pentagon is shaking off a Taylor Swift [conspiracy theory](. (h/t Toby Harshaw) Notes: Please send lactase enzyme pills and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before itâs here, itâs on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals canât find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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