Plastics cause disease and deaths, from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding $1.5 trillion annually.
Plastics are a grave, growing and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health, a new scientific report has warned.
Plastics cause disease and deaths, from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding $1.5 trillion annually. These effects fall disproportionately on vulnerable populations, particularly babies and children, said the report published in The Lancet on the eve of the expected final round of talks to conclude a global treaty to end plastic pollution.
The mandate for these negotiations, which run from Tuesday until 14 August in Geneva, Switzerland, unanimously agreed at the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022, is to develop an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, from design to disposal.
The report says the principal driver of the plastics crisis is accelerating growth in production. Global output has grown more than 250-fold from less than two megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475Mt in 2022, with the most rapid increases being in single-use plastics. Without intervention, it is projected that global plastic production will nearly triple by 2060 to 1 200Mt.
Given that less than 10% of plastic is recycled and waste can persist in the environment for decades, an estimated eight billion tonnes of plastic waste, or 80% of all the plastic ever made, now pollutes the planet.
Microplastic 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, the report said.
“Yet, continued worsening of plastics’ harms is not inevitable. Similar to air pollution and lead, plastics’ harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented and adequately financed laws and policies.”
In parallel with the finalisation of the global plastics treaty, the report also announced the launch of an independent, health-focused global monitoring system — the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics.
This will develop and track indicators across four domains: production and emissions; exposures; health and interventions and engagement.
“We know a great deal about the range and severity of the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution across the full lifecycle of plastic,” Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist, the director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College and the lead author of the new report, said in a statement.
“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.”
Decision-makers will need access to the best available scientific evidence to guide the implementation and development of the important treaty in the months and years to come, said Margaret Spring, one of the report’s co-authors and the co-lead of one of the working groups in the new Lancet countdown.
“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,” Spring said.
The report noted how plastic is the “defining material of our age” with more than 98% of it made from fossil carbon — gas, oil and coal.
Plastics are flexible, durable, convenient and “perceived to be cheap”, it said. They are ubiquitous in modern societies and have supported advances in many fields, including medicine, engineering, electronics and aerospace.
“It is increasingly clear, however, that plastics pose grave, growing and underappreciated dangers to human and planetary health. Moreover, plastics are not as inexpensive as they appear and are responsible for massive hidden economic costs borne by governments and societies.”
These harms to human and planetary health are worsening, driven mainly by continuing annual increases in the production of new plastics.
Early-life exposure to plastics and plastic chemicals is linked to increased risk of miscarriage; prematurity; stillbirth; low birthweight and birth defects of the reproductive organs; neurodevelopmental impairment, impaired lung growth and childhood cancer.
“Early-life exposures to plastic chemicals can contribute to reduced human fertility and increased risks of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adult life.”
Plastic production is highly energy-intensive and releases more than two gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, and other climate-forcing greenhouse gases, into the atmosphere each year, harming health by accelerating climate change.
Every year, an estimated 10 to 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean. “Many plastics appear to resist breakdown in the ocean and could persist for decades.”
Microplastic and nanoplastic particles, which result from the breakdown of larger plastic materials, are an emerging threat to health. While their effects are still incompletely understood, more studies report the presence of microplastics in multiple human tissues and are “beginning to link it to disease”.
The report said that, in 2015, the health-related costs of plastic production amounted to almost $600 billion globally — more than the GDP of New Zealand or Finland.
“Chemicals in plastics, such as PBDE (flame retardant), bisphenol (BPA; monomer) and di (2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP; plasticiser) are responsible for additional health-related economic costs. In the USA alone, the annual costs of diseases caused by PBDE, BPA and DEHP exceed $675 billion.”
These estimates undercount the full costs of plastic-related health damages because they examine only a few countries and only a subset of plastic chemicals. “The costs are externalised by fossil fuel and plastic manufacturing industries and borne by governments and taxpayers.”
A key driver of the acceleration in plastic output is a pivot by fossil fuel corporations and nations that are the major producers of plastic and petrochemicals, in response to declining demand for fossil energy, the report said.
“For example, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company plans to channel about one third of its oil production to plastics and petrochemicals by 2030 and Shell has recently opened a new cracking plant in western Pennsylvania, USA, that will transform fracked gas from Appalachia into plastic pellets.”