New Tool Alert: A Plastic Health Map
A Team of Scientists Have Created The World's First Database Tracking Research On Plastic Chemicals to Potential Human Harm.
Toxic and tiny. Plastics have been found everywhere, from the most remote areas on the planet to inside our bodies. It’s in our clothes, packaging, cosmetics, and many more items we use everyday. One 2020 study even found microplastics in our fruits and vegetables.
Sure, plastic is durable and cheap. The trouble is that we still know very little about how all this plastic everywhere impacts human health.
Enter a new database created by a team of scientists at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation that maps more than 3,500 studies dating back to the 1960s on plastic chemical exposure and human health impacts.
They screened more than 100,000 individual scientific papers from multiple scientific journals to develop the open-access, interactive online tool. You can now access the Plastic Health Map.
“The Map includes studies from the 1960s onwards because this was when large-scale production and plastic pollution began to increase significantly, making human exposure to plastic materials and their degradation products inevitable,” said Louise Goodes, Plastic Health Map Project Lead.
The database focuses on plastic chemicals to which consumers are commonly exposed: polymers, chemical additives that act as plasticizers and flame retardants, bisphenols, and per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Users can filter the scientific literature by type of plastic chemical exposure, country, and human health outcome.
The team uncovered growing evidence clusters, as well as stark research gaps. In fact, of more than 1,500 chemicals mapped, less than 30 percent have been investigated for human health impacts. That’s just shameful.
“Given the enormous quantity of plastic materials currently in use, as well as the fact that we were unable to determine whether many of the plastic chemicals in use globally had actually been measured in living humans and evaluated for possible health impacts, we identified an urgent need to systematically map existing research,” Goodes explained.
The studies indicate that we are exposed to, often unregulated, plastic chemicals via inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact. Children are additionally exposed prenatally, for example, via the placenta, and postnatally via breast milk.
Additionally, few studies have looked at “substitution” chemicals, such as organophosphate flame retardants, phthalate substitutes, and bisphenol analogues, which have increasingly replaced restricted additives. Very few studies have been conducted in low-income countries where populations may be heavily exposed to plastic waste.
“While as authors we fully expected gaps in research, the extent of those gaps shocked us,” said Professor Sarah Dunlop, Minderoo Foundation’s Head of Plastics and Human Health. “All new plastic chemicals should be tested for safety before being introduced in consumer products, with ongoing post-introduction monitoring of their levels in human biospecimens and evaluation of health effects throughout the lives of individuals and across generations.”
I’ve been saying it for years. What we don’t know can hurt us. The lack of scientific evidence linking untested chemicals to our health is a HUGE problem. We need more research so that we can understand the impact plastics (and so many other chemicals) have on our bodies and our planet.
Those impacted the most live near plastic production plants or near landfills where plastics are dumped. Plastic waste contains more than 10,500 chemicals including carcinogens, neurotoxicants, endocrine disruptors, and many others of unknown toxicity.
Back in 2017, the first study of plastic pollutants in our tap water revealed that 94 percent of 33 tap water samples from across the U.S. tested positive for the presence of plastic fibers. Those sample sites included the U.S. Capitol complex and the headquarters of the EPA in Washington, D.C.
We produce more than 300 million tons of plastic in the world each year, and about half of all plastics are created for disposable items such as water bottles.
We don’t have any long-term studies about the effects of ingesting these tiny plastic fibers, which are essentially fragments of larger pieces of non-biodegradable plastic.
What To Do About Plastics
Policy: Back in March 2022, the UN Environment Assembly adopted a historic resolution to develop a global plastics treaty with a goal to reduce plastic pollution, including ocean pollution and microplastics, across the entire plastic life-cycle. It was the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris Accord. You can read more about it here.
Personal Action: Work to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in your life as best you can by buying more items in bulk and skipping plastic containers whenever you can. Obviously, bottled water can be a lifesaver in a crisis, but opt for water filters when you can.
Activism: Corporations have big footprints. If you want a company to be smarter about its packaging, make your voice heard. Write a letter, send a tweet, or hit them where it really hurts: Give your money to a more sustainable competitor.
Other thoughts about plastics? Let us know in the comments below.
As Erin has said, more than 62 thousand chemicals were grandfathered in when the EPA came into being, and no legal framework was created for testing. The time for correcting that situation was decades ago, so the entire process needs to be revised and strengthened immediately. In the case of persistent chemicals (those that do not break down into natural components with half lives under two [say] years) approval should not occur. For others, approval should be based on demonstration of non-toxicity at the 3-sigma level by a minimum of two independently conducted studies performed by separate, non-affiliated, accredited institutions. This should be applied to legacy chemicals as well. Let's be scientific for a change!