Plastic and Human Health: A Lifecycle Approach to Plastic Pollution
Despite being one of the most pervasive materials on the planet, plastic and its impact on human health remain poorly understood. Yet exposure to plastic is expanding into new areas of the environment and food chain as existing plastic products fragment into smaller particles and concentrate toxic chemicals. As plastic production increases, this exposure will only grow.
Research
into the human health impacts of plastic must recognize that significant,
complex, and intersecting human health impacts occur at every stage of the
plastic lifecycle: from wellhead to refinery, from store shelves to human
bodies, and from waste management to ongoing impacts as air , water, and soil
pollution.
Together,
the lifecycle impacts of plastic paint a clear and troubling picture: plastic
threatens human health on a global scale. Reducing those threats will demand
stopping and reversing the growth in plastics production, use, and disposal
worldwide.
To address the human health crisis
hiding in plain sight, we must:
Take
a lifecycle approach to plastic. The narrow approaches to assessing and
addressing plastic impacts to date are inadequate and inappropriate. Making
informed decisions that address plastic risks demands a full lifecycle approach
to understanding the full scope of its toxic impacts on human health. It is
also required to ensure that even more and increasingly complex environmental
problems are not created in the attempt to address this one.
Account
for distinct risks to human health at every stage of plastic’s lifecycle, from
both exposure to plastic particles themselves and associated chemicals. The
majority of people worldwide are exposed at multiple stages of this lifecycle:
Extraction and Transport
99%
of plastic comes from fossil fuels. The extraction of oil and gas, particularly
hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, releases an array of toxic substances
into the air and water, often in significant volumes. Over 170 fracking chemicals
that are used to produce the main feedstocks for plastic have known human
health impacts, including cancer, neurological, reproductive, and developmental
toxicity, impairment of the immune system, and more. These toxins have direct
and documented impacts on skin, eyes, and other sensory organs, the
respiratory, nervous, and gastrointestinal systems, liver, and brain.
Refining and Manufacture
Transforming
fossil fuel into plastic resins and additives releases carcinogenic and other
highly toxic substances into the air. Documented effects of exposure to these
substances include impairment of the nervous system, reproductive and
developmental problems, cancer, leukemia, and genetic impacts like low birth
weight. Industry workers and communities neighboring refining facilities are at
greatest risk and face both chronic and acute exposures during uncontrolled
releases and emergencies.
Consumer Products and Packaging
Use
of plastic products leads to ingestion and / or inhalation of large amounts of
both microplastic particles and hundreds of toxic substances with known or
suspected carcinogenic, developmental, or endocrine-disrupting impacts.
Waste Management
All
plastic waste management technologies (including incineration, co-incineration,
gasification, and pyrolysis) result in the release of toxic metals, such as
lead and mercury, organic substances (dioxins and furans), acid gases, and
other toxic substances to the air , water, and soils. All such technologies
lead to direct and indirect exposure to toxic substances for workers and nearby
communities, including through inhalation of contaminated air, direct contact
with contaminated soil or water, and ingestion of foods that were grown in an
environment polluted with these substances. Toxins from emissions, fly ash, and
slag in a burn pile can travel long distances and deposit in soil and water,
eventually entering human bodies after being accumulated in the tissues of
plants and animals.
Plastic in the Environment
Once
plastic reaches the environment in the form of macro- or microplastics, it
contaminates and accumulates in food chains through agricultural soils,
terrestrial and aquatic food chains, and the water supply. This environmental
plastic can easily leach toxic additives or concentrate toxins already in the
environment, making them bioavailable again for direct or indirect human
exposure. As plastic particles degrade, new surface areas are exposed, allowing
continued leaching of additives from the core to the surface of the particle in
the environment and the human body. Microplastics entering the human body via
direct exposures through ingestion or inhalation can lead to an array of health
impacts, including inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and
necrosis, which are linked to an array of negative health outcomes including
cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes,
rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflatmmation, auto-immune conditions, neuro-degenerative
disease and stroke.
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