A landmark Lancet analysis warns that surging plastic output is driving disease, premature death, and mounting economic losses worldwide.
Damian Carrington reports for The Guardian.
In short:
- Global plastic manufacturing has climbed 200-fold since 1950 and, without intervention, is projected to top one billion tons a year by 2060, led by single-use packaging.
- The review links exposure to more than 16,000 plastic chemicals and micro- and nanoplastics to miscarriages, childhood cancers, fertility problems, strokes, and heart attacks.
- Plastics are almost entirely fossil-fuel-based; their production and widespread open burning now emit more climate-heating gases than Russia and worsen air pollution.
Key quote:
“We know a great deal about the range and severity of the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution.”
— Philip Landrigan, Boston College epidemiologist and pediatrician
Why this matters:
Plastic’s convenience hides a toxic lifecycle. Nearly every bag, bottle, and toy begins with fossil-fuel extraction, an industrial process that releases climate-warming carbon and hazardous air pollutants. Once discarded, those same objects fragment into microscopic shards that mingle with dust, food, and drinking water, carrying thousands of largely untested additives. Scientists are discovering nanoplastics lodged in placentas and lung tissue, raising worries about inflammation, hormonal disruption, and long-term disease. Meanwhile open burning of waste in lower-income regions fills the air with dioxins and soot, helping drive respiratory illness and premature death. The issue is as much about equity as trash: The poorest communities bear the brunt while companies plan to triple output.
Related: Plastics may disrupt the body’s clock, raise risk of chronic disease, study finds
