Thousands of plastic chemicals used in everyday objects are dangerous to human health, according to a new database of all known plastics.
This resource, published Thursday by the Norway-based PlastChem Project, catalogs 16,000 different plastic chemicals currently in production, more than have ever been described before.
Of the total, at least 4,200 raise concerns because they pose significant risks to human health and the environment, and only 980 are regulated.
Many of these chemicals are found in commonly used objects, such as blood bags for transfusions, plastic water bottles for drinking, and oral toys for children’s teething.
PVC blood bags used for transfusions can contain phthalates and other additives that leach into the blood inside, according to the report.
Plastic teething toys may contain dangerous chemicals, wrote the authors of a new report on plastics around the world.
“Governments around the world want to tackle the plastic problem,” saying The report’s lead author, Martin Wagner, an environmental toxicologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“However, this can only be achieved if problematic plastic chemicals are properly addressed,” he added. “The report provides much-needed scientific evidence to make plastics safer for the environment and for humans.”
Some of the 15 highest-priority chemicals in the report include PFAS, so-called ‘forever chemicals’ that have been linked to liver damage from thyroid cancer and low birth weight.
Another class of dangerous chemicals identified in the report are phthalates, which mimic the body’s hormones and decrease testosteroneResearch has shown.
Bisphenols are also known to disrupt the human endocrine system by mimicking estrogen.
His team’s new database and report include at least 3,000 more chemicals than those identified in a previous report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and other international institutions.
One of the most surprising findings of the new report is the information gaps on more than a quarter of plastic chemicals in circulation.
These chemicals “lack basic information about their identity, and more than half have ambiguous or missing information about their functions and applications in the public domain,” the report’s authors wrote.
Also notable is the fact that few of the chemicals on this list are actually regulated.
Only 980 of the 4,200 hazardous chemicals are regulated by existing environmental agreements, the report highlighted.
That leaves more than 3,200 unregulated chemicals that scientists have designated as hazardous.
Each type of plastic can contain hundreds of different chemicals.
PlastChem used four criteria to label chemicals as hazardous: persistence, mobility, bioaccumulation, and toxicity.
Persistence means that it does not break down or degrade in the environment, a common problem for microplastics found around the world.
PFAS are a common contaminant in many household items, from kitchen utensils to hamburger wrappers. It can remain in the environment and human tissue for years, even decades, before being eliminated.
Plastic water bottles contain hundreds of chemicals. Of the 4,200 hazardous chemicals identified in the new list, only 980 are regulated.
Mobility means it can spread. Recent research has shown that microplastics can be transmitted between mother and fetus through the placenta.
Bioaccumulation means that chemicals can accumulate in living things over time.
And toxicity simply means that a chemical can cause harm to people, plants, or animals.
Although the researchers identified 4,200 as dangerous, they noted that there could be others on the list of 16,000 that should have the label; There is simply not enough information about them because many are considered the exclusive property of chemical companies.
“We are finding hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic chemicals in people and some of them have been linked to adverse health outcomes,” said report co-author Jane Muncke, CEO of Swiss nonprofit Food Packaging Forum. Reuters.
Fertility problems, heart disease and cancer are among some of the problems related to chemicals in plastics.
“When we look at…the products we use every day, we typically find hundreds, if not thousands, of chemicals in an individual plastic product,” Wagner said.
The plastics industry and the oil industry, the two main groups involved in plastic production, have long claimed that the products are recyclable. Recent reports showed that they knew this was not true.
Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, said cnn that ‘plastic as a material continues to offer safety, protection and efficiency, while it can be reused and recycled. Chemicals are chemicals and policies must be developed that are applicable to all of them. Trying to focus exclusively on ‘plastic chemicals’ runs the risk of policy redundancy and tunnel vision.’
However, the plastics industry has been aware for more than 30 years that recycling plastics is neither economically nor practically possible, according to a report published last month.
Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Chemistry Council, told CNN that “unfortunately, today’s report seeks to advance a hazard framework that ignores real-world exposures and paints an incomplete picture for regulators and the public”. This contrasts with risk assessments, used to support the most effective chemical management laws.’
The plastics industry has focused on recycling and reusing plastics, but the report’s authors argued that simply addressing waste is insufficient.
They said plastic should be regulated differently at all stages of its life cycle: production, use and disposal. All of this.
And without pressure on industry and governments to do something different, the report’s authors wrote, nothing will get done.