Report urges treaty to regulate plastics like pharmaceuticals, limit growth

A panel of prominent scientists and the Minderoo Foundation are out with a new report urging the global plastics treaty talks to set tough benchmarks for health testing of chemicals in plastics, similar to standards used in the pharmaceutical industry.

The March 21 report also put numbers behind what it said were premature deaths, heart disease or other health problems attributed to exposure to plastics additives including DEHP, PBDE and bisphenol A. The report estimated, for example, that in 2013 there were 90,000 premature U.S. deaths of people 55 to 64 years old attributable to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, exposure.

"Plastics is a health issue; it's not just a waste issue, with hazards across the life cycle," said Sarah Dunlop, head of plastics and human health at the Minderoo Foundation. "The aim of this commission is to expose the harmful individual chemicals and the chemical-laden microplastics and demand accountability.

"We show that plastics production is rocketing upwards, and we need to get to the source of the problem, which is why we're proposing a cap on plastic made from fossil fuels," she said at a March 21 online launch ceremony.

The massive 223-page report, prepared by the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, said its strongest recommendations are for the United Nations treaty to fully consider the health impacts of plastics.

The plastics industry responded by saying the report is making irresponsible scientific interpretations.

"It's irresponsible for the Minderoo Foundation to release a report riddled with significant scientific flaws to create misleading impressions about plastics," said Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council. "In particular, it is based on the false premise that if something can be detected [then] it must cause health or environmental harm."

ACC said plastics are regulated for health and safety.

"Governments across the globe regulate plastics for health and safety, and they must meet important thresholds established by sound scientific criteria to be used in a variety of applications, including food packaging, medical products and hygiene applications," he said. "Plastics are critical to protecting our children, making the homes we live in more energy-efficient and protecting the food we eat."

Industry officials have questioned Minderoo's work because it is funded by an Australian billionaire, Andrew Forrest, who built his fortune mining metals, materials that often compete with plastics.

But the report said it relies on peer-reviewed science and said the Minderoo Foundation did not have any influence over the findings and recommendations of the commission.

The report's nearly 50 co-authors include prominent scientists and policy voices around plastics pollution issues, such as Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association, Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth and Margaret Spring, the head of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and former chair of a U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel on ocean plastic waste.

As evidence that the treaty talks should move aggressively, speakers pointed to an estimated tripling of plastics production globally by 2050 and an inability to deal with current environmental impacts of plastics.

Dunlop said the panel highlighted health concerns surrounding a significant number of the 10,500 chemicals such as phthalates and flame retardants used in plastics formulations, as well as the potential impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics.

"The really key thing you need to remember is that these chemicals are not bonded to the polymers," Dunlop said. "They slip out, they leach out, and they get into us. Of those 10-and-half-thousand chemicals, about 1,200 are of high concern. What do we mean by high concern? We mean they are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic."

She said about 1,200 of the chemicals are of medium concern, and 1,400 are of low concern.

"The worrying thing also is that [for] 4,000 of those chemicals, we have no idea of their hazard ratings," Dunlop said. "We're not told what they are by industry, and this is not reassuring."

The report also includes a section trying to quantify what it said were premature deaths or health problems from exposure to three of the chemicals.

Maureen Cropper, an economist from the University of Maryland, told the launch event that it includes only data from the United States for those three — DEHP, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and BPA — because the U.S. government monitors data showing levels of the chemicals in the general population. Such data may not exist in other countries, she said.

Cropper said that by using U.S. epidemiological studies, the commission estimates about 90,700 premature deaths of people between 55 and 64 years old in 2013 came from exposure to DEHP.

"The estimate here is over 90,000 deaths, about 5.2 percent of deaths in that age group, can be attributed to levels of DEHP found in adults in the U.S.," said Cropper, who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

The report also looked at air pollution exposure from plastics production and estimated 159,000 premature deaths worldwide in 2015. About 30 percent of those deaths were in China, with another 47 percent in the rest of Asia, while less than 10 percent in the United States and Europe, the report said.

"Only about 6 percent of the deaths occurred in the U.S. and the [European Union] combined," Cropper said. "That partly reflects where plastics are being produced. It also reflects the use of pollution-control devices, which are not being used everywhere in the world."

Scientists on the panel said they believe there's enough data around environmental impacts, particularly with plastics industry growth projections, to act.

"Despite current unknowns, all the scientists I know argue that there's already sufficient evidence of harm to justify actions to reduce these environmental impacts of plastics," said Law, a widely published author and witness at congressional hearings. "Modeling of those impacts predicts widespread adverse ecological effects in 50 to 100 years without corrective actions."

Some panel members also pointed out how complex solutions will need to be.

Thompson, a professor of marine biology at the University of Plymouth and longtime researcher on plastics pollution, noted the benefits of plastics use, including plastics parts cutting the weight of cars and planes to reduce carbon emissions, plastics in medical applications and the benefits of single-use packaging in reducing food waste.

"Plastics are not the enemy," he said. "It's the way we've chosen to use them without due thought and care and attention."

He called the global treaty talks a "golden opportunity" to rethink how plastics are used.

"We still don't really know which plastics do we eliminate by reduction, which do we design for recycling, which do we design for reuse and how that does vary between different countries," Thompson said. “Which things do we ban? Which do we tax? Where do biodegradable plastics fit into this? What’s the role of recycled content?”

He believes the benefits of plastics can be achieved without the harms from emissions and other problems.

"Part of this journey will be using plastics in responsible applications to much better effect without these unintended consequences that we've seen," he said.

As an example of a thorny problem, he pointed to microplastics pollution from textile fibers, asking if policy interventions should happen at wastewater treatment plants, or with filters in washing machines or by redesigning clothing, because over half of microplastic fibers are shed when clothes are worn.

"When I think of the U.N. treaty and the framing at the moment, most of this has to be driven by actions at the level of the member state," Thompson said. "Wastewater treatment and mandating a filter is something that is relatively under the control of a member state.

"Introducing legislation to control global fashion markets is much more difficult for any single member state, and it's the reason we need the United Nations to work on the implementation of the treaty and not to simply devolve actions to member states," he said.