Doctors are sounding alarms about plastic pollution's serious health consequences, urging the United Nations to prioritize evidence-based solutions in upcoming global treaty talks.
Rebecca Speare-Cole reports for The Independent.
In short:
- The Plastic Health Council warns that the current UN draft treaty fails to fully address plastic's health impacts.
- Toxins in plastics, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, have been linked to serious health problems like strokes and heart attacks.
- Countries like the US are shifting to support reduced plastic production, but major petrochemical industries resist stronger regulations.
Key quote:
"The planet pays the price of plastic — but so, too, does its people. It is not only the oceans that are filling with plastic: across all ages, our bodies contain growing volumes of plastic particles."
— Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at the University College London & Whittington Health NHS Trust
Why this matters:
Plastic particles are now turning up in places they should never be — our blood, organs, even in the placentas of newborns. The big question: What long-term havoc could this be wreaking on our bodies? Strokes, heart attacks, premature death — the research is starting to piece together these connections, but the treaty, so far, isn’t matching that urgency.
