Materials & Packaging

Plastic Pollution Devastating Human Health, Costing Trillions

As final global plastics treaty negotiations take place in Geneva, The Lancet elevates plastic pollution as a grave, global threat to human health.

Published 3 months ago | About a 5 minute read

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A landmark report published this week in The Lancet issues a fresh clarion call: Plastic pollution is a grave and growing danger to human and planetary health. As a final round of negotiations for a potential global plastics treaty takes place in Geneva this week, and both industry lobbyists and the US administration are doing their best to thwart them, the report — a review of dozens of recent studies — provides the most up-to-date assessment of the irrefutable links between health and plastic pollution across the full life cycle of plastic.

An estimated 8 billion metric tons of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Micro- and nanoplastic particles and multiple plastic chemicals are found in the most remote reaches of the environment and in the bodies of marine and terrestrial species worldwide, including humans. Plastics harm human health at every stage of both the human and plastic life cycle, and vulnerable populations bear a disproportionate burden. This new report chronicles the impacts of plastics and plastic pollution for disease and death from infancy to old age, and highlights the significant health-related economic costs: Health damage from just three plastic chemicals – BPA, DEHP and PBDE – in 38 countries is estimated at $1.5 trillion a year.

Prof Philip Landrigan, MD — a lead author of the new report and Director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College — emphasized the imperative for the global plastics treaty to include measures that protect human health and the environment across the full life cycle of plastic: “We know a great deal about the range and severity of the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution across the full life cycle of plastic. These impacts fall most heavily on vulnerable populations, especially infants and children. They result in huge economic costs to society. It is incumbent on us to act in response.

“To those meeting in Geneva: Please take up the challenge and the opportunity of finding the common ground that will enable meaningful and effective international cooperation in response to this global crisis.”

The report also announces the launch of an independent, health-focused global monitoring system on plastics: The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics — inspired by the model and impact of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

“Through its publications, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change has moved consideration of climate change’s health impacts to the mainstream of the climate conversation,” said Prof Joacim Rocklöv, Director of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health & Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Computing, Co-Chair of the new Countdown and also Regional Co-Director, Europe, of the Countdown on Health and Climate Change. “This new Countdown will provide the data to ensure that health remains at the center of the plastics pollution conversation.”

The new Countdown will identify and regularly report on a suite of scientifically meaningful and geographically and temporally representative indicators across all stages of the plastic life cycle, and track progress towards minimizing exposures and mitigating human health impacts — aiming to provide independent data that can continue to inform decision-making for the benefit of public health.

Margaret Spring, co-author of the report and Co-Lead of a working group within the new Lancet Countdown, said: “Decision-makers around the world will need access to the best available scientific evidence to guide the implementation and development of this important treaty in the months and years to come. The Countdown reports will offer a robust, independent, and accessible data source that can help to inform development of effective policies addressing plastic pollution at the international, regional, national, sub-national and local levels.”

The Countdown will develop and track indicators across four domains: Production and Emissions, Exposures, Health Impacts, and Interventions and Engagement. The first three domains follow a classic source-exposure-effects model and provide a framework for tracking plastics’ impacts on human health across every stage of the plastic life cycle. The fourth domain will track interventions across the plastic life cycle with the potential to affect exposures and human and planetary health, as well as activities that enable and support these interventions.

“The Lancet’s decision to elevate plastic pollution as a threat to humanity is a globally significant moment that negotiators in Geneva cannot ignore as they decide whether the Global Plastics Treaty will protect future generations from the scourge of plastic pollution,” said Professor Sarah Dunlop, Director of Plastics and Human Health at Minderoo Foundation — principal supporter of the new Countdown. “Toxic chemicals in everyday plastic items leach into our bodies, and harm human health at every stage of our lives. The evidence for this harm is consistent and overwhelming, and the Global Plastics Treaty provides an opportunity for regulation to address this.”