Chemicals in plastics far more numerous than previous estimates

LONDON: At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics — from food packaging to toys to medical devices — than previously estimated by environment agencies, a report published on Thursday found, raising questions over pollution and consumer safety.

While the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had previously identified around 13,000 plastic chemicals, the report by a team of European scientists found more than 16,000 chemicals in plastics — a quarter of which are thought to be hazardous to human health and the environment.

The report, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, comes as government negotiators grapple with devising the world’s first treaty to tackle mounting plastic pollution, as some 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced every year.

“To robustly solve plastic pollution, you actually have to look at the full life cycle of plastics and you have to address the chemicals issue,” said report co-author Jane Muncke, managing director of the Swiss nonprofit Food Packaging Forum.

That’s because plastic chemicals can leach into water and food.

“We’re finding hundreds if not thousands of plastic chemicals in people now and some of them have been linked to adverse health outcomes,” Muncke said.

“When we look into ... products that we’re using on a daily basis, we usually find between hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals in an individual plastic product,” said lead author Martin Wagner, an environmental toxicologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

While the plastics industry has said any global treaty should promote recycling and re-use of plastic, only addressing plastic waste doesn’t go far enough to protect people, the report’s authors said.