This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a nanoparticle of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.  Justin Bieber and Harry Styles, both made of 99% nanoplastics If you told me I’d encounter 240,000 nanoparticles of plastic in my lifetime, I’d say big woof. By now I know that plastic is everywhere. It’s in my workout leggings and sports bras. It’s in the placentas of new mothers. It’s 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, I’d start to freak out. Especially considering I’ve 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 — which are plastic particles smaller than a wavelength of light, or one-seventieth the width of a human hair — "pose a greater threat to human health than microplastics because they’re small enough to penetrate human cells, enter the bloodstream and impact organs," 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 — is that even possible? — read F.D. Flam, who writes that you should first weigh the risks. "We are all exposed, in many cases, to far more nanoparticles than are present in bottled water," 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, "most of the plastic we consume comes from the larger particles. The smaller nanoparticles, identified in the new study, don’t make a significant change in the total mass ingested," she explains. Alarming headlines don’t help, either. "In the last several years news organizations have been repeating that we eat about a credit card’s equivalent in plastic every week. That figure, five grams, is dubious," F.D. says. Although it’s reassuring to know that I’m 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 — and Harry Styles concerts. Have you ever seen your boss cry? I haven’t. 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. "Oh, come on," she thought, "Just fix the planes." But then she watched the video, where he blurted out, "I got kids, and I got grandkids, and so do you." 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 "visionary." Whether you’re at the helm of a country or a company, you need to appeal to many different audiences — your employees, your customers, your customer’s customers, your competitors, your financial backers, your blood relatives, even. "It can be difficult to sound genuine even when the emotion you’re showing is authentic," Sarah explains. And every situation is different: "Choking 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," 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 "more seasoned" CEOs. "The gap between what it takes to start a company and run one has never been wider," she writes. The reality is that a lot of these Silicon Valley wunderkinds weren’t prepared to cut budgets or fire employees. "For some leaders, it’s way more fun to be a peacetime CEO picking the flavors of kombucha at the bar," Christa Quarles, CEO of software company Alludo, told Beth. Which … yeah! I’m sure Dave Calhoun would rather be sampling office kombucha instead of apologizing about the gaping hole in his airplane. But he’s gotta fix those holes, first. What, pray tell, is going on with Ohio’s governor? At first, Mike DeWine was all like,"No guys, we can’t be passing a bill that would ban all gender-affirming care for minors! That’s bigoted." But a week later he was like, "Actuallyyy, we gotta do this executive order thingy so that transgender adults can’t access the care they need." All that hem-hawing is notmaking LGBTQ rights groups happy, to say the least. "In state after state, Republican lawmakers have targeted, demonized and discriminated against transgender Americans," Nia-Malika Henderson writes. Kentucky teachers, for instance, are now legally allowed to mis-gender their students and call them by their "dead names." DeWine had a chance to be a trailblazer on transgender rights in Ohio. Instead, he’s just another soldier in the GOP’s ever-escalating culture wars.  "About a third of adults say they haven’t taken their medicines as prescribed because of the cost," Bloomberg’s editorial board writes. Although Congress initially went after the drugmakers themselves, it has increasingly targeted the so-called "middlemen" 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. "Manufacturers have been known to give the same drug vastly different prices, knowing PBMs will prefer the higher option," the editors explain. But lawmakers should proceed carefully; targeting the middlemen may end up creating more loopholes for the business. Bitcoin ETFs are here for real this time. — Matt Levine K-Pop without the ‘K’ just won’t pop. — Bobby Ghosh America’s oil and gas boom doesn’t feel like one to workers. — Justin Fox Argentina’s new president has a narrow path forward to save the economy. — Juan Pablo Spinetto Smaller banks are secretly profiting from a Fed facility that tempers losses on long-term bonds. — Paul J. Davies Bangladesh is dangerously dependent on one export sector. — Mihir Sharma How the world’s most valuable learning app went from $22 billion to $3 billion in less than 15 months. — Andy Mukherjee Whatever happens in Taiwan’s elections, tensions between the US and China will continue to rise. — Minxin Pei Sam Altman said AI do. Donald Trump defied a judge in court. Cancer is striking more young people. Hertz is shifting back to gas. There’s a measles outbreak in Philly. Feds don’t want highway signs to be funny. Pomegranates are making a juicy comeback. The yassification of Lactaid. (h/t Beth Kowitt) London’s 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. | 
