Plastic poses a potential threat to health, experts caution
The United Nations (UN) is set to resume talks on a global plastic waste agreement in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, with representatives from nearly 180 countries participating. This accord, if agreed upon, would be the world's first treaty to comprehensively address plastic pollution by targeting the entire plastics life cycle and enforcing regulatory measures to reduce health and environmental harms.
Plastic pollution poses a serious, growing, and underestimated health threat. The current health risks associated with plastic pollution include diseases and premature deaths across all stages of life. Exposure to plastic chemicals and microplastics can occur through ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact, leading to a range of health issues.
Documented health effects include reproductive issues such as polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis, perinatal problems like miscarriage, low birth weight, and genital malformations, impaired cognitive function, insulin resistance, hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer in adults. Vulnerable groups such as infants, children, pregnant women, waste workers, and marginalized communities are at especially high risk.
The economic costs of these health impacts are enormous, exceeding $1.5 trillion annually worldwide and including substantial disease and disability burdens. Plastic pollution also inflicts broader environmental harms that exacerbate health problems related to climate change.
Scientists and health experts, including Dr. Philip Landrigan, a physician and researcher, have been urging the delegates to address this global crisis. They are appealing for the representatives to agree to a UN plastic waste accord that would implement laws and policies to reduce plastic production, improve waste management, and boost recycling rates, which currently process only about 10% of plastic waste globally.
However, the talks faced resistance from a handful of predominantly oil-producing countries, which oppose an ambitious plastic accord. Despite this opposition, more than 100 countries, including Germany, initially supported such an accord. The UN talks provide an opportunity for finding "common ground" to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.
The talks were initially scheduled to take place in Geneva, but they failed to reach an agreement in December in Busan, South Korea. Now, with renewed efforts, the UN negotiations in Geneva in mid-2025 offer a crucial opportunity to mitigate the growing health crisis by implementing laws and policies that could reduce plastic production, improve waste management, and boost recycling rates. Without such action, plastic production is projected to double by 2040 and triple by 2060, worsening the health and environmental impacts.
Researchers have published a report in The Lancet, warning about the health risks of plastic pollution. They have also found microplastics in nature and the human body, further emphasizing the urgency of addressing this global issue.
As the talks resume, the world watches with hope, as a potential agreement could mark a significant step towards a cleaner, healthier planet for all.
- The UN delegates are urged to address the global crisis of plastic pollution by implementing employment policies that reduce plastic production and improve waste management, as outlined by scientists and health experts like Dr. Philip Landrigan.
- While the economic benefits of a cleaner, healthier environment resulting from effective plastic waste management are well-documented, the current health risks associated with plastic pollution, such as diseases and premature deaths across all stages of life, are a pressing concern in the field of medical-conditions and health-and-wellness.
- The potential UN plastic waste accord, if agreed upon, would not only target the entire plastics life cycle to combat plastic pollution but also address the increasing health and environmental harms, including those related to climate-change and mental-health, by enforcing regulatory measures and boosting recycling rates.
