A new investigation made available exclusively to CNN reveals that about 93% of known plastic chemicals used in food packaging, clothing and toys, and other common household and personal care products pose a high risk to human health.
Potential health harms include cancer, genetic changes, endocrine disruption, and toxicity that may affect the reproductive system and organs, according to Naima Vendrell, lead author of the report, “Toxic Plastics: How Chemicals in Everyday Plastic Harm Your Health,” released Wednesday.
“We looked at what these plastic chemicals could do to the body, along with exposure levels, in order to calculate the overall health risk,” said Vendrell, a researcher at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a London-based environmental nonprofit that prepared the report.
The report analyzed exposure levels in 5 categories of plastic products that people use almost daily.
“The report does an excellent job of presenting information about everyday plastic in a very user-friendly way,” said pediatrician Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Observatory for Planetary Health and the Program on Global Public Health and the Good at Boston College.
“Suddenly people can realize how close the problem is to them, and how these plastics are creeping into their lives in ways they didn't realize,” added Landrigan, who was not involved in preparing the report.
But the report warns that about 80% of the 3,552 chemicals used in common types of plastic lack sufficient data to evaluate their toxicity and risks of exposure.
“We do not know the extent of the harm that these substances may cause to us and our children, nor even the composition of many of them, although this information is supposed to be available from the manufacturers,” Landrigan said.
On the other hand, the American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers, called for the report to be treated with “extreme caution,” considering that it overlooked key regulatory databases and sources of information in the United States and the European Union.
Kimberly Wise-White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the Council, said the report presented a misleading picture of chemicals regulation, adding: “Without taking these regulatory frameworks into account, the report contributes more to headline generation than to advancing science.”
Plastic is found in most aspects of our lives. More than 80% of agricultural products sold in American supermarkets are wrapped in single-use plastics, while about 60% of clothing is made from plastic-based synthetic fabrics. It is estimated that 90% of the toys used by children are made of plastic, and many of them contain chemicals that may be harmful to health.
Plastic products also include household items, food storage containers, and furniture, along with personal care and medical products, increasing the amount of potential exposure to these materials.
In 2024, international scientists created the “PlastChem” database, which includes known chemicals found in plastics. Of the 16,000 substances identified by the researchers, 4,200 were classified as “extremely dangerous” to human health and the environment, while no data was available for more than 10,000 other substances.
The Environmental Justice Foundation used the database in its analysis, according to Jane Munke, co-author of PlastChem and executive director and chief scientific officer of the Food Packaging Forum. Al-Qaeda groups chemicals into 15 priority groups that can be targeted by regulation.
Among them are bisphenols, such as BPA, and phthalates, as well as PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” which studies have linked to billions of dollars in health damage and health care costs.
According to Martin Wagner, leader of the PlastChem project, many chemicals are found in plastic:
Wagner said that some chemicals of concern are persistent and do not break down easily in the environment. They also accumulate in the body over time and spread easily in water and the aquatic environment.
However, more than 50% of known high-risk chemicals are not regulated by major bodies such as the European Union or under a number of international environmental agreements, according to Wendrell.
Vendrell said that the United States has not ratified a number of these agreements, including the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm agreements, which, she said, makes consumers in the United States more vulnerable to these health risks.
According to the report, the problem has worsened with the massive expansion in plastic production. In 1950, global production was about 2 million metric tons per year, compared to more than 430 million metric tons today.
Scientists expect plastic production to more than double by 2050, along with the production of about two billion metric tons of chemical additives used in it.
Landrigan said that the chemicals industry has created and manufactured about 325,000 industrial chemicals since its expansion after World War II, adding that data on the toxicity of these materials is only available, in the best reports, for about 20% of them.
