Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet

Understanding and responding to plastic risks, and making informed decisions in the face of To date, research into the human health impacts those risks, demands a full lifecycle approach to of plastic has focused narrowly on specific assessing the full scope of the impacts of plastic moments in the plastic lifecycle, from wellhead on human health. [...] As plastic particles effects of exposure to these substances include continue to degrade, new surface areas are impairment of the nervous system, reproduc- exposed, allowing continued leaching of tive and developmental problems, cancer, additives from the core to the surface of leukemia, and genetic impacts like low birth the particle in the environment and the weight. [...] The rise in plastic production, use, and consump- The use of plastic as a substitute for traditional tion has raised concerns about potential impacts materials, and as the basis for new categories on human health and the environment since at of materials, has grown exponentially since the least the 1970s and with growing frequency and end of World War II, when plastic producers urgency in the last. [...] While concerns over the impacts of plastic have refining and manufaCTure been (and sometimes continue to be) denied or Through processing in refineries and crackers, downplayed, the scale and urgency of the plastic these feedstocks are transformed into the poly- pollution crisis has unified a global community to mers that form the foundation of the plastic undertake legal, scientific, and advocacy. [...] Manchester Refinery,125 which include propylene as one of their primary is part of the city of Houston, home of the largest petro- products.126 Propylene is used as a chemical intermediate in chemical complex in the United States and one of the the production of plastic, fine chemicals, and carpet fibers.127 largest in the world.