At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics \u2014 from food packaging to toys to medical devices \u2014 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 \u2014 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\u2019s first treaty to tackle mounting plastic pollution, as some 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced every year.\u201cTo robustly solve plastic pollution, you actually have to look at the full life cycle of plastics and you have to address the chemicals issue,\u201d said report co-author Jane Muncke, managing director of the Swiss nonprofit Food Packaging Forum.That\u2019s because plastic chemicals can leach into water and food.\u201cWe\u2019re finding hundreds if not thousands of plastic chemicals in people now and some of them have been linked to adverse health outcomes,\u201d Muncke said.Such impacts include fertility issues and cardiovascular disease.\u201cWhen we look into \u2026 products that we\u2019re using on a daily basis, we usually find between hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals in an individual plastic product,\u201d 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\u2019t go far enough to protect people, the report\u2019s authors said.Scientists flagged the need for greater transparency on what chemicals \u2014 including additives, processing aids, and impurities \u2014 are going into plastics \u2013 including recycled products.A quarter of the identified chemicals lack basic information on their basic chemical identity, the report said.\u201cAt the core of the problem is the chemical complexity of plastics,\u201d said Wagner, who also serves on the board of the Scientists\u2019 Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty.\u201cOften producers don\u2019t really know which kind of chemicals they have in their products and that comes from very complex value chains.\u201dOnly 6% of the chemicals found in plastics are regulated internationally. Without regulatory pressure, \u201cthere is no motivation to disclose what\u2019s in the plastics,\u201d he said.That\u2019s something a plastics treaty could help to address. Negotiations continue next month in Ottawa, Canada, with the aim of finalizing a treaty come December in the South Korean city of Busan.(Reuters)chemicals. plastics, chemicals, pollution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A report found that plastics contain at least 3,000 more chemicals than previously estimated by environment agencies, totaling over 16,000 chemicals, a quarter of which are considered hazardous to human health and the environment. This discovery raises concerns over pollution and consumer safety. The report, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, highlights the importance of addressing the full life cycle of plastics and the chemicals they contain to solve plastic pollution effectively. The research indicates that plastic chemicals can leach into water and food, potentially leading to adverse health outcomes such as fertility issues and cardiovascular disease. The study also points out the need for greater transparency regarding the chemicals used in plastics, including recycled products, noting that a quarter of the identified chemicals lack basic information on their chemical identity. Only 6% of the chemicals found in plastics are regulated internationally, underscoring the need for a global treaty to address these issues. Negotiations for such a treaty are ongoing, with the aim of finalizing it by December in Busan, South Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1521,913,1980,1793,3,203,415,210,1864,1546,1979,1981,1222,948,1682,327,1571,1759,884,962,18],"class_list":["post-4207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-1521","tag-canada","tag-chemicals","tag-coalition","tag-cyprus","tag-environment","tag-government","tag-health","tag-negotiations","tag-plastic-pollution","tag-plastics","tag-pollution","tag-safety","tag-south-korea","tag-technology","tag-toys","tag-transparency","tag-united-nations","tag-waste","tag-water","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n