New Delhi, Aug 4
Ahead of the UN treaty on plastics, a new report in The Lancet journal on Monday has warned that plastic pollution is an underrecognised threat to the health of both humans and the planet, which must be addressed immediately.
The report, led by a group of international experts, reviews the current evidence on how plastics -- including microplastics and plastic chemicals -- impact health.
“Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding $1.5 trillion annually,” said corresponding author Prof Philip J Landrigan, from Boston College, US.
The report discusses evidence that plastics endanger human health at every stage of their life cycle -- in production, use, and disposal. It showed that airborne emissions from plastic production include particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides, as well as hazardous chemicals to which plastic workers can be exposed.
The experts from the US, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia noted the lack of transparency around which chemicals are present in plastics, their production volumes, uses, and known or potential toxicity.