There's Almost No Research On The Health Impact Of Plastic Chemicals In The Global South

Plastic is everywhere, but is it toxic? Photo credit: Anwar Hazarika/NurPhoto – Getty Images

This story was produced in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network.

Approximately 13,000 chemicals are associated with the production of plastics, 7,000 of which have been studied for their impact on health and the environment. About half of those studied contain substances considered dangerous to human health, but 50 years of research, multiple languages, thousands of publications and an alphabet soup of acronyms, synonyms and chemical combinations make it difficult to navigate. However, due to increasing plastic production, this has become very important as it can pose a serious threat to human health.

A new research map wreaks havoc on the system, showing existing studies by chemical composition, health effects, affected populations and geography. There have been hundreds of thousands of studies on the chemicals found in plastics. So far, the map only covers about 3,500 peer-reviewed human health studies, a third of which show effects on the human hormonal, nutritional and metabolic systems, but it provides important insights into what we already know. We know about the role of plastic in humans. . Health. , and remains to be seen.

“The Plastic Health Map from Australia's Mindero Foundation, a charity focused on reducing plastic pollution, shines a light on historical transparency ,” says George A. Emanuel, assistant professor of plastic and environmental studies at the Silliman University Institute. Environmental and Marine Sciences in the Philippines.

The map will be an important tool for negotiators meeting in Nairobi next month to dismantle the UN agreement that legally regulates the global production and disposal of plastics. Human health advocates, industry leaders, NGOs and national representatives can easily use existing research to support or suppress proposals on limits on plastic products, manufacturing processes, chemical controls, waste disposal options and alternative uses. “It's very difficult to keep up with the new documents,” said Emanuel, who was not involved in creating the map. “It would be very helpful if the material was concise, searchable and fully referenced.”

More from TIME

Read more: Americans eat and breathe more than 70,000 pieces of plastic each year

Plastic production will triple by 2060, and as a result, toxic and potentially harmful chemicals such as PCBs, phthalates, BPA, PFAS and their analogues are continually linked to a variety of adverse health effects. Studies. In March 2023, the Mindero-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, a coalition of scientists, policy analysts and health experts, released a comprehensive study on health risk perceptions with the support of the Mindero Foundation. Add plastic. In 2015, the global health care costs of plastic production were estimated at more than $250 billion, and in the United States alone, the health care costs from illnesses and injuries caused by the plastics-related chemicals PBDE, BPA, and DEHP (which are not included). estimated. plastic products) exceeded $920 billion. But many of the chemicals used in plastic production are still largely undiscovered, unregulated and untested.

It is this uneven reporting that has led neuroscientist Sarah Dunlop to understand the full spectrum of research on the health effects of plastic. As head of plastics and human health at the Mindero Foundation, she said she was initially overwhelmed by the chemicals and related research literature that needed to be addressed. An initial search of the existing literature for reference chemicals in plastics yielded more than 846,000 articles. “So we had to create a map so we could navigate quickly.”

Read more: Big oil companies have sold the plastic recycling myth to the world. It may be too late to repair the damage

It took Dunlop's team three and a half years to identify the first 3,500 peer-reviewed studies, a compelling argument for stricter regulations. But the most important findings, he says, are what they didn't find: papers examining human exposure to micro- and nanoplastics, or studies on the health effects of alternative chemicals used as substitutes, such as bisphenol A .They used to be considered dangerous. Not surprisingly, most of the work is done in developed countries. But the most vulnerable countries” – such as low-income countries with poor waste management infrastructure – “have almost no research.

The blank spaces in the database's geographic index represent a clear call for more scientific attention, said Bhedita Jaya Sewo, a biomedical researcher in Mindoro who helped create the map. The same goes for the long list of chemicals used in everyday plastics, whose effects on human health have never been studied or subjected to scientific scrutiny after warning signals were raised in the industry.

“Ideally, they want chemicals to be thoroughly tested before they go into consumer products” and then monitored to ensure their safety, he said. Testing chemical compounds on humans would obviously be unethical: Seewoo and his colleagues speak of laboratory experiments. But because most plastic manufacturers add chemicals to consumer products without considering the broader health effects, it's essentially a giant human experiment. “How do you know what’s good?” asked Dunlop. A good place to start is by outlining what we know and, more importantly, what we don't know.

Contact us at athletes@time.com.

Is MSG really bad for you? | verb point | Full room