Plastic Pollution ‘Severe and Increased’ Health Threat: Lancet

Plastic pollution is a “grave, growing and degraded risk” for health that costs the world at least $ 1.5 trillion a year, experts warned a report on Monday.

The new review of existing data, conducted by leading researchers and health doctors, was published one day in front of new talks in Geneva with the aim of sealing the world’s first treaty on plastic pollution.

“Plastics cause illness and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health -related financial losses exceeding $ 1.5 trillion a year,” the Lancet Medical Journal review.

Comparing plastic with air pollution and driver, the report said its impact on health could be mitigated by laws and policies.

Experts have called for representatives from nearly 180 nations to concentrate in Geneva to eventually agree to a treaty after previous failed efforts.

Philip Landrigan, a doctor and researcher at Boston College in the United States, warned that vulnerable people, especially children, are more affected by plastic pollution.

“He is responsible for us to act in response,” he said in a statement.

“To those who meet in Geneva: Please take on the challenge and the opportunity to find the common reason that will allow essential and effective international cooperation in response to this global crisis.”

The researchers have also warned of tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics, which have been found throughout nature – and in all human bodies.

The complete effect of microplastics on health is not yet fully known, but the researchers have heard the alarm about the possible effects of this ubiquitous plastic.

The amount of plastic produced by the world increased from two million tonnes in 1950 to 475 million tonnes in 2022, the report said. The number is expected to triple by 2060.

However, today less than 10% of all plastic is recycled, he added.

Landrigan said the plastic “crisis” of the world is linked to its climate crisis. The plastic is made of fossil fuels.

“There is no depreciation of both the climate crisis and the plastic crisis,” Landrigan said.

“Both are causing illness, death and disability today to tens of thousands of people and these damage will become more serious in the coming years, as the planet continues to warm up and plastic production continues to grow,” he said.

The report also announced a new attempt to monitor its plastic pollution in health, the latter in a series called Countdown Lancet.