On March 21, 2023, the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health published a report in the Annals of Global Health summarizing impacts from all stages of the plastics supply chain on human health, environmental health, and the economy. With over 10,000 substances known to be used intentionally in plastic products (FPF reported) the report authors focus on the effects from five widely studied chemical groups, specifically: phthalates, bisphenols, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), brominated flame retardants, and organophosphate flame retardant. Further, they provide information on the growing evidence of effects from micro– and nanoplastics.
The human health section gives particular attention to vulnerable populations such as developing fetuses and young children, and those working in and living near manufacturing facilities (FPF reported). Highlighted effects include a 30% increased rate of leukemia in neighboring communities as well as increased rates of breast cancer among men and women working in plastics production facilities with women more than twice as high as in the general population. Furthermore, the authors wrote that prenatal exposure to plastic additives like phthalates and bisphenols leads to worse social and physical outcomes in children (FPF reported, also here and here). To conclude their summary on health effects they write that, “[p]lastic causes disease, disability, and premature death at every stage of its long and complex life cycle – from extraction of the coal, oil, and gas that are its main feedstocks, to transport, manufacture, refining, use, recycling, combustion, and through to reuse, recycling and disposal into the environment.”
Plastics and their additives have been associated with a diverse range of environmental impacts (FPF reported, also here and here). To narrow down the subject area the Minderoo-Monaco Commission focused on plastics’ effect on marine life. The amount of plastic in the marine environment is constantly increasing (FPF reported) with food packaging and fishing gear being major sources of macroplastic pollution (FPF reported). For the first time in 2017, the top ten most-collected items in the International Coastal Cleanup were made of plastic.
Plastics can undergo diverse physical and chemical reactions in the environment. This leads to the creation of entirely new materials and pollutants for which new words are being developed to describe them. For instance, the authors defined the terms “plastiglomerates” – composites of melted plastic, sand or sediment, volcanic rock, and organic matter, likely formed by the burning of plastic; and “plasticrusts” – plastic encrusted on intertidal rocks.
Addressing the external costs of the plastic supply chain is difficult, but “[a] broader public understanding of the full costs associated with plastics is essential to engender actions needed to remedy social and environmental injustice associated with plastics production, use, and disposal.” The report summarizes some of the research on specific plastic additives such as phthalates economic costs in the US and EU (FPF reported, also here and here) or BPA on cardiovascular health (FPF reported); research from around the world to estimate the total number of occupational deaths attributable to plastics production in 2015 (over 30,000); the economic costs of those workers’ deaths and deaths of others living nearby from plastics-associated air pollution (>$250 billion); and costs from lost IQ and increased intellectual disability in the EU ($11-26 billion), US ($202-412 billion), and Canada ($6-15 billion), also in 2015.
In the US in 2015 alone, endocrine disrupting chemicals and the “neurotoxic plastic additives” polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7), and di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP, CAS 117-81-7) are responsible for economic costs of “over $920 billion (2015 Int$). Estimates suggest that over 90% of exposure to these substances comes from plastics.”
By focusing on the differences in regulation of specific hazardous chemicals in the US versus the EU, the authors try to illustrate how regulation can lead to greater health outcomes. “The losses in IQ points, and associated lifetime productivity losses, are much lower in the EU, where PBDEs have been regulated for many years, than in the US, where the impact of these endocrine disruptors remains substantial. Although we cannot produce similar estimates in other countries, due to lack of data on exposure of the general population, results from the US suggest that the externalized disease burden and economic costs associated with plastic use require much closer examination.”
The combined health effects on humans and the environment and the economic costs incurred from those effects unjustly burden the poor, minorities, the marginalized, and the Global South (FPF reported). The report authors outlined many ways to increase social and environmental justice (SEJ) in the regulation of and research on plastics but it all boils down to the primary message that “reducing the sources of plastic pollution and health impacts (including reducing production and addressing the health risks of additives and microplastics) be pre-eminent in the hierarchy of SEJ solutions.”
Reference
Langriden et al. (March 2023). “The Minderoo-Monaco commission on plastics and human health.” Annals of Global Health. DOI: 10.5334/aogh.4056
Read more
Minderoo Foundation (March 21, 2023). “Minderoo-Monaco Commission.”
Tatum McConnell (March 21, 2023). “Every stage of plastic production and use is harming human health: Report.” Environmental Health News
