Plastics are used massively in the world, but it is not yet perceived that they can have harmful effects on human health. The United Nations Environment Program released a report on its impacts, and the Endocrine Society, which brings together experts in endocrinology worldwide, called for attention.
Negotiations have been underway since last year to establish a legally binding international treaty on plastic pollution, particularly in the marine environment. But the society of specialists called for the opportunity to be seized to protect people from chemicals called “endocrine disruptors” found in plastics.
More than 13,000 chemical substances associated with plastics and their production have already been identified. According to the Environment Program, several of them generate “great concern due to their high toxicity and their potential to migrate or release plastics.”
These substances include specific flame retardants, certain UV stabilizers, alkyl perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoride substances, phthalates, bisphenols, alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates, biocides, certain metals and metalloids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and many other unintentionally added substances.
The substances have been found in toys and other children’s products, packaging (including food contact materials), electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles, synthetic textiles and related materials, furniture, construction materials, medical devices, household and personal care products, and agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries. “Chemicals present in plastics can affect health and the environment: Extensive scientific data on the potential adverse effects of some 7,000 substances associated with plastics show that more than 3,200 of them have one or more worrying dangerous properties” , the report noted.
Women and children are especially susceptible to these toxic chemicals. Exposures can have serious or long-lasting adverse effects at several key periods of a woman’s life and may affect subsequent generations.
Besides, exposures during fetal development and in children can cause disorders related to neurodevelopment and neurobehavior. Men are not spared from the problem either. The latest research documents substantial detrimental effects on male fertility due to today’s combined exposure to hazardous chemicals, many of which are associated with plastics.
The Argentine scientist Marina Fernández, from Conicet, participated days ago in the plenary session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee on Plastic Pollutions of the United Nations Environment Program that was made in Paris.
“Our community is united in our opinion that the Plastics Treaty represents an opportunity to protect human and ecological health from the adverse effects of plastic pollutionminimizing exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” said Fernández.
They proposed that the use of hazardous substances in plastic products be reduced through strict safety standards and criteria that take into account endocrine disruptors. They call for public health targets to be set, with special consideration given to countries and communities that are disproportionately impacted.