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First Comprehensive Plastics Database Tallies Staggering 16,000 Chemicals—And It's Still Incomplete

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Thursday, March 14, 2024

First Comprehensive Plastics Database Tallies Staggering 16,000 Chemicals—And It’s Still IncompleteA massive new dataset highlights more than 4,200 plastic chemicals linked to health and environmental risks. But scientists say there are still large gaps in the scientific understanding of plastic ingredientsBy Katherine BourzacCredit: Richard Drury/Getty ImagesPlastics are inescapable. That soda bottle or disposable razor or even the coating on your mattress may expose you to hundreds of different chemicals, some of which scientists know very little about. Scientists are now a step closer to handling this complexity. On Thursday the PlastChem Project, a group of researchers in Norway and Switzerland, announced that it had identified more than 16,000 chemicals in plastic products in the first comprehensive database of all known plastic chemicals. The database, accompanied by a report, sorts the chemicals by their known environmental and health effects—a bank of information the PlastChem team hopes will inform governmental regulations, as well as international negotiations for a treaty to curb plastic use and production.“It’s a dynamite report,” says Miriam Diamond, who studies chemical contaminants at the University of Toronto and was not involved in the research. The new database brings together information from scientific papers and seven datasets that detail different chemicals, says Martin Wagner, PlastChem’s project lead and a biologist who studies plastics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It took his team about a year to compile and sort through all the data. A 2023 report from the United Nations Environment Program had previously estimated there are more than 13,000 chemicals associated with plastics. The new database expands this to a degree that shocks even scientists who study these issues. “Sixteen thousand chemicals—oh, my God,” Diamond says.In addition to the sheer volume of chemicals, “the striking thing for us is that at least 25 percent of these are chemicals of concern,” Wagner says. The researchers zeroed in on more than 4,200 of the chemicals in the database that they flagged for several qualities: the chemicals’ tendency to persist without degrading, ability to build up in the human body or other organisms, mobility through the environment and toxicity.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The chemical complexity of plastics has posed challenges in fully understanding their health and environmental effects—about 10,000 of the chemicals in the new database did not have sufficient information to determine their potential risks. But for some of them, there is strong evidence of health risks. Phthalates—used in coatings and flooring materials to make them thin and flexible—disrupt the reproductive system, Diamond says. Her research has also shown that exposure to phthalates in household dust in a child’s first year of life is linked with increased risk of asthma at age five. Bisphenols, including bisphenol A (BPA), are another group of plastic chemicals that are well-known for disrupting the body’s hormonal regulation. And then there are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, which have been linked with cancer risk and immune system problems.Wagner says he was surprised to learn about the risks associated with melamine. This material is used to make bowls and other dinnerware; it’s also combined with bamboo and other natural organic materials to make plastic alternatives. Melamine is classified as a carcinogen by the European Union and has been detected in drinking water, yet it is widely used. The chemical also readily moves through the environment, and it’s highly resistant to degradation.The report also highlights the continued presence of chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that have been banned in plastics under the U.N.’s 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which went into effect in 2004.The health problems linked to plastic chemicals are a significant burden on society, Wagner says. A study published in January estimated that the annual health-related costs attributable to exposure to four types of plastic chemicals—including phthalates, bisphenols, PFASs and flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—cost $250 billion per year in the U.S., about 1.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Exposure to these chemicals is associated with health problems, including developmental disorders, cancer, diabetes and infertility. “It sounds very scary and frustrating,” Wagner says. “But there are opportunities here to put plastics on a safe and sustainable pathway so that we don’t have to pay all these costs.”The PlastChem report recommends a few solutions. First, more information is needed on the 10,000 plastic chemicals that are insufficiently studied. “We urgently need some action on filling those data gaps,” Wagner says. This could take decades even with ample scientific funding. The report’s authors recommend prioritizing research on understudied chemicals based on the size of the market for them. The authors also push for a regulatory approach called “no data, no market,” which would put the onus on companies to provide toxicity data about chemicals before they can sell products that contain them.Wagner and the PlastChem team also recommend simplifying plastic recipes. There are about 3,000 chemicals used as dyes, for instance. This list could be streamlined to reduce potential health and environmental impacts. Simplifying plastics’ chemical footprint would also make it easier to recycle them. And the report calls for more transparency about what’s in plastics. Currently scientists must perform an intensive chemical analysis to find out what ingredients are in a given plastic product, what their concentrations are and whether they pose risks.In an e-mail to Scientific American, Matt Seaholm, CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, an industry trade group, took issue with the premise of the report. “Plastic as a material continues to offer safety, protection and efficiency while also being able to be reused and recycled,” Seaholm wrote. “Chemicals are chemicals and policies should be developed that are applicable to all of them. Trying to focus exclusively on ‘plastics chemicals’ risks redundancy and tunnel vision in policy.”Global plastic recycling rates are as low as 9 percent, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Only 15 percent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, but 40 percent is discarded from the recycling process because of its low quality. If this continues, plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems could triple from nine million to 14 million metric tons in 2016 to 23 million to 37 million by 2040.And as the PlastChem report highlights, scientists believe there is too little information in what is in all this plastic. “We don’t have enough research on plastic chemicals,” says Christopher Reddy, a marine geochemist who studies plastic pollution at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was not involved with the report. “As we move forward, we need to identify the safest and most sustainable plastics and be strategic in the way we choose which polymers and which additives we need.”The PlastChem team hopes the database will provide guidance to policymakers heading into the next round of negotiations for an international plastics treaty that is overseen by the U.N. Environment Program’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. Delegates at the meeting will discuss ways to limit plastic pollution by focusing on the entire life cycle of plastics: ways to regulate how they are designed and manufactured, as well as how to ensure that they are recycled. The High-Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, led by Norway and Rwanda, is pushing to ban or restrict production of problematic plastics and develop sustainability criteria, among other goals. The chemical industry has been pushing back on these efforts, asserting that the focus should be on recycling, not production. Scientists who study the plastic waste problem and environmental groups highlight that recycling is insufficient because of low rates, the inability to recycle some plastics and the fact that all the chemicals in plastic mean products made from recycled materials are of lower quality. The treaty negotiations will be held in Ottawa in April and may be finalized at the end of this year at a meeting in Busan, South Korea.“There’s a need for governments to act, and they have the opportunity to do it now,” Wagner says. “We need a systemic political solution.”

A massive new dataset highlights more than 4,200 plastic chemicals linked to health and environmental risks. But scientists say there are still large gaps in the scientific understanding of plastic ingredients

First Comprehensive Plastics Database Tallies Staggering 16,000 Chemicals—And It’s Still Incomplete

A massive new dataset highlights more than 4,200 plastic chemicals linked to health and environmental risks. But scientists say there are still large gaps in the scientific understanding of plastic ingredients

By Katherine Bourzac

Common household plastic items balanced in a stack on a plain gray surface with a beige wall backdrop

Credit:

Richard Drury/Getty Images

Plastics are inescapable. That soda bottle or disposable razor or even the coating on your mattress may expose you to hundreds of different chemicals, some of which scientists know very little about. Scientists are now a step closer to handling this complexity. On Thursday the PlastChem Project, a group of researchers in Norway and Switzerland, announced that it had identified more than 16,000 chemicals in plastic products in the first comprehensive database of all known plastic chemicals. The database, accompanied by a report, sorts the chemicals by their known environmental and health effects—a bank of information the PlastChem team hopes will inform governmental regulations, as well as international negotiations for a treaty to curb plastic use and production.

“It’s a dynamite report,” says Miriam Diamond, who studies chemical contaminants at the University of Toronto and was not involved in the research. The new database brings together information from scientific papers and seven datasets that detail different chemicals, says Martin Wagner, PlastChem’s project lead and a biologist who studies plastics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It took his team about a year to compile and sort through all the data. A 2023 report from the United Nations Environment Program had previously estimated there are more than 13,000 chemicals associated with plastics. The new database expands this to a degree that shocks even scientists who study these issues. “Sixteen thousand chemicals—oh, my God,” Diamond says.

In addition to the sheer volume of chemicals, “the striking thing for us is that at least 25 percent of these are chemicals of concern,” Wagner says. The researchers zeroed in on more than 4,200 of the chemicals in the database that they flagged for several qualities: the chemicals’ tendency to persist without degrading, ability to build up in the human body or other organisms, mobility through the environment and toxicity.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

The chemical complexity of plastics has posed challenges in fully understanding their health and environmental effects—about 10,000 of the chemicals in the new database did not have sufficient information to determine their potential risks. But for some of them, there is strong evidence of health risks. Phthalates—used in coatings and flooring materials to make them thin and flexible—disrupt the reproductive system, Diamond says. Her research has also shown that exposure to phthalates in household dust in a child’s first year of life is linked with increased risk of asthma at age five. Bisphenols, including bisphenol A (BPA), are another group of plastic chemicals that are well-known for disrupting the body’s hormonal regulation. And then there are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, which have been linked with cancer risk and immune system problems.

Wagner says he was surprised to learn about the risks associated with melamine. This material is used to make bowls and other dinnerware; it’s also combined with bamboo and other natural organic materials to make plastic alternatives. Melamine is classified as a carcinogen by the European Union and has been detected in drinking water, yet it is widely used. The chemical also readily moves through the environment, and it’s highly resistant to degradation.

The report also highlights the continued presence of chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that have been banned in plastics under the U.N.’s 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which went into effect in 2004.

The health problems linked to plastic chemicals are a significant burden on society, Wagner says. A study published in January estimated that the annual health-related costs attributable to exposure to four types of plastic chemicals—including phthalates, bisphenols, PFASs and flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—cost $250 billion per year in the U.S., about 1.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Exposure to these chemicals is associated with health problems, including developmental disorders, cancer, diabetes and infertility. “It sounds very scary and frustrating,” Wagner says. “But there are opportunities here to put plastics on a safe and sustainable pathway so that we don’t have to pay all these costs.”

The PlastChem report recommends a few solutions. First, more information is needed on the 10,000 plastic chemicals that are insufficiently studied. “We urgently need some action on filling those data gaps,” Wagner says. This could take decades even with ample scientific funding. The report’s authors recommend prioritizing research on understudied chemicals based on the size of the market for them. The authors also push for a regulatory approach called “no data, no market,” which would put the onus on companies to provide toxicity data about chemicals before they can sell products that contain them.

Wagner and the PlastChem team also recommend simplifying plastic recipes. There are about 3,000 chemicals used as dyes, for instance. This list could be streamlined to reduce potential health and environmental impacts. Simplifying plastics’ chemical footprint would also make it easier to recycle them. And the report calls for more transparency about what’s in plastics. Currently scientists must perform an intensive chemical analysis to find out what ingredients are in a given plastic product, what their concentrations are and whether they pose risks.

In an e-mail to Scientific American, Matt Seaholm, CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, an industry trade group, took issue with the premise of the report. “Plastic as a material continues to offer safety, protection and efficiency while also being able to be reused and recycled,” Seaholm wrote. “Chemicals are chemicals and policies should be developed that are applicable to all of them. Trying to focus exclusively on ‘plastics chemicals’ risks redundancy and tunnel vision in policy.”

Global plastic recycling rates are as low as 9 percent, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Only 15 percent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, but 40 percent is discarded from the recycling process because of its low quality. If this continues, plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems could triple from nine million to 14 million metric tons in 2016 to 23 million to 37 million by 2040.

And as the PlastChem report highlights, scientists believe there is too little information in what is in all this plastic. “We don’t have enough research on plastic chemicals,” says Christopher Reddy, a marine geochemist who studies plastic pollution at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was not involved with the report. “As we move forward, we need to identify the safest and most sustainable plastics and be strategic in the way we choose which polymers and which additives we need.”

The PlastChem team hopes the database will provide guidance to policymakers heading into the next round of negotiations for an international plastics treaty that is overseen by the U.N. Environment Program’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. Delegates at the meeting will discuss ways to limit plastic pollution by focusing on the entire life cycle of plastics: ways to regulate how they are designed and manufactured, as well as how to ensure that they are recycled. The High-Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, led by Norway and Rwanda, is pushing to ban or restrict production of problematic plastics and develop sustainability criteria, among other goals. The chemical industry has been pushing back on these efforts, asserting that the focus should be on recycling, not production. Scientists who study the plastic waste problem and environmental groups highlight that recycling is insufficient because of low rates, the inability to recycle some plastics and the fact that all the chemicals in plastic mean products made from recycled materials are of lower quality. The treaty negotiations will be held in Ottawa in April and may be finalized at the end of this year at a meeting in Busan, South Korea.

“There’s a need for governments to act, and they have the opportunity to do it now,” Wagner says. “We need a systemic political solution.”

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Scientists Drill Nearly 2 Miles Down to Pull 1.2 Million-Year-Old Ice Core From Antarctic

An international team of scientists say they’ve successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet, penetrating nearly 2 miles to Antarctic bedrock to reach ice that's at least 1.2 million years old

An international team of scientists announced Thursday they’ve successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet, penetrating nearly 2 miles (2.8 kilometers) to Antarctic bedrock to reach ice they say is at least 1.2 million years old.Analysis of the ancient ice is expected to show how Earth's atmosphere and climate have evolved. That should provide insight into how Ice Age cycles have changed, and may help in understanding how atmospheric carbon changed climate, they said.“Thanks to the ice core we will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals and dusts in the atmosphere,” said Carlo Barbante, an Italian glaciologist and coordinator of Beyond EPICA, the project to obtain the core. Barbante also directs the Polar Science Institute at Italy's National Research Council.The same team previously drilled a core about 800,000 years old. The latest drilling went 2.8 kilometers (about 1.7 miles) deep, with a team of 16 scientists and support personnel drilling each summer over four years in average temperatures of about minus-35 Celsius (minus-25.6 Fahrenheit).Italian researcher Federico Scoto was among the glaciologists and technicians who completed the drilling at the beginning of January at a location called Little Dome C, near Concordia Research Station.“It was a great a moment for us when we reached the bedrock,” Scoto said. Isotope analysis gave the ice's age as at least 1.2 million years old, he said.Both Barbante and Scoto said that thanks to the analysis of the ice core of the previous Epica campaign they have assessed that concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, even during the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, have never exceeded the levels seen since the Industrial Revolution began.“Today we are seeing carbon dioxide levels that are 50% above the highest levels we’ve had over the last 800,000 years," Barbante said.The European Union funded Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) with support from nations across the continent. Italy is coordinating the project.The announcement was exciting to Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State who was not involved with the project and who was recently awarded the National Medal of Science for his career studying ice sheets. Alley said advancements in studying ice cores are important because they help scientists better understand the climate conditions of the past and inform their understanding of humans’ contributions to climate change in the present. He added that reaching the bedrock holds added promise because scientists may learn more about Earth’s history not directly related to the ice record itself.“This is truly, truly, amazingly fantastic,” Alley said. “They will learn wonderful things.”Associated Press writer Melina Walling contributed from Chicago. Santalucia reported from Rome.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

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Health experts rally for ‘call to arms’ to protect children from toxic chemicals

In new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, leading researchers to propose action to protect kidsChildren are suffering and dying from diseases that emerging scientific research has linked to chemical exposures, findings that require urgent revamping of laws around the world, according to a new paper published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).Authored by more than 20 leading public health researchers, including one from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and another from the United Nations, the paper lays out “a large body of evidence” linking multiple childhood diseases to synthetic chemicals and recommends a series of aggressive actions to try to better protect children. Continue reading...

Children are suffering and dying from diseases that emerging scientific research has linked to chemical exposures, findings that require urgent revamping of laws around the world, according to a new paper published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).Authored by more than 20 leading public health researchers, including one from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and another from the United Nations, the paper lays out “a large body of evidence” linking multiple childhood diseases to synthetic chemicals and recommends a series of aggressive actions to try to better protect children.The paper is a “call to arms” to forge an “actual commitment to the health of our children”, said Linda Birnbaum, a former director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the paper.In conjunction with the release of the paper, some of the study authors are helping launch an Institute for Preventive Health to support the recommendations outlined in the paper and to help fund implementation of reforms. 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Using Arctic ice core samples, researchers estimate silver mining and smelting released enough lead during the Pax Romana to cause a 2.5- to 3-point drop in IQ

At the same time as the Romans were building the Colosseum, they were also breathing in high amounts of toxic lead from silver mining and smelting operations. Hussain Didi via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 Did lead poisoning contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? It’s a question historians have long debated, since the Romans sweetened their wine with lead acetate and sipped tap water that flowed through lead pipes. Now, new research suggests the Romans were also breathing in large amounts of lead from silver mining and smelting operations. The toxic metal polluting the air likely got into children’s blood, leading to “widespread cognitive decline,” researchers write in a new paper published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lead in the air might have caused an estimated 2.5- to 3-point drop in IQs throughout the Roman Empire, per the research. 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These processes are known to emit large amounts of lead into the atmosphere. “If you produce an ounce of silver, you’d have produced something like 10,000 ounces of lead,” McConnell tells the New York Times’ Katherine Kornei. Using the lead levels they found in the ice samples, the researchers were able to work backward and estimate how much lead the Romans must have been spewing into the air. Atmospheric modeling suggests between 3,300 and 4,600 tons of lead were released each year during the Pax Romana, per the New York Times. The scientists estimate that lead pollution was the worst in areas next to mining and smelting operations, reaching concentrations of at least 150 nanograms per cubic meter of air. The toxins would have also spread across Europe—they estimate average concentrations of lead air pollution were greater than 1 nanogram per cubic meter over the continent. Next, they used modern data to estimate how much lead would have built up in the blood of ancient Roman children. They were then able to extrapolate how these accumulations might have affected their IQ. The researchers focused on children in particular, because kids are especially vulnerable to the health consequences of lead exposure. Today, global health experts agree that no amount of lead is safe for kids. The heavy metal can build up in the body and cause health problems. In addition to lowering IQ, lead accumulation in children can lead to slowed growth, anemia, hearing problems, hyperactivity and behavior and learning problems. “We have actual data on IQ scores in kids with different blood-lead concentrations,” Deborah Cory-Slechta, a neurotoxicologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who was not involved with the paper, tells the New York Times. Roman children likely had an extra 2.4 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood from the empire’s air pollution. That correlates to a drop in IQ of between 2.5 and 3 points. Factoring in background lead exposure, their blood levels of lead may have been as high as 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, the researchers estimate. And that doesn’t take into account other sources of lead exposure, so the team’s findings are probably an underestimate, reports NBC News. For reference, American children had around 15 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood during the 1970s, before lead paint and leaded gasoline were banned. Those levels likely resulted in a 9-point drop in IQ, per the New York Times. “A 2.5- to 3-point reduction in IQ may not sound like much but it was across the entire population and would have persisted for the nearly 180 years of the Pax Romana,” McConnell tells the Guardian’s Ian Sample. “I leave it to epidemiologists, ancient historians and archaeologists to determine if the levels of background atmospheric lead pollution and health impacts we have identified … were sufficient to change history.” But even factoring in these new findings, some experts remain skeptical that lead poisoning caused the Roman civilization to collapse around 476 C.E. “While the magnitude of exposure and the correlated blood lead levels were enough to negatively affect the cognitive function of that population, this is still a far cry from causing the downfall of the Roman Empire,” says Amy L. Pyle-Eilola, a pathologist at the Ohio State University who was not involved with the research, to New Scientist’s Christa Lesté-Lasserre. Caleb Finch, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California who was not involved with the research, remains similarly unconvinced. “The conclusion of ‘widespread cognitive decline’ from an estimated three-IQ point decrease does not match the huge productivity of the Roman Empire, when lead production was maximal,” he tells Science’s Taylor Mitchell Brown. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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Exxon Mobil sues California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta over plastic recycling claims

Exxon lawsuit accuses California's attorney general, the Sierra Club and others of defaming the oil giant with negative comments about plastic recycling.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil has filed a defamation lawsuit against California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, claiming Bonta falsely accused the company of deceiving the public about the potential for plastic recycling.The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, amounts to a counterpunch against a suit Bonta filed against Exxon Mobil last September accusing the company of greatly exaggerating the extent to which plastics can be recycled by portraying them as universally recyclable.Exxon claims that accusations by Bonta and environmental groups have damaged its reputation with customers.“With apparently no appreciation for the irony of their claim, Mr. Bonta and his cohorts are now engaging in reverse greenwashing,” according to the complaint, which also names environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation. “While posing under the banner of environmentalism, they do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation,” the lawsuit says.The legal battle underscores a widening rift between California and oil companies. Plastics are a product of the petroleum industry, created by processing chemicals found in hydrocarbons.Bonta‘s suit against Exxon goes beyond issues of consumer deception to address plastic manufacturing itself. Plastic waste is increasingly recognized as a serious global pollution problem. The Bonta suit seeks financial penalties “for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution upon California’s communities and the environment.”Bonta alleged the company “falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable” while the recycling rate of plastics in the U.S. is below 10%. Exxon has disputed those claims. The battle against Big Oil has become a hallmark of the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom. He’s accused oil companies of price gouging, although state efforts to prove it have thus far born no fruit. Newsom coaxed the state Legislature in two special sessions to create a price gouging investigation unit and to require oil refineries to keep extra stocks of gasoline on hand to prevent price spikes when refineries shut down for maintenance.The governor is seeking to keep gasoline prices down as the state increasingly squeezes its oil refineries with its electric vehicle mandate. In 2020, Newsom ruled that automakers increase sales of new zero-emission vehicles over time until 2035, when state policy will ban sale of new traditional gasoline and diesel fueled cars and light trucks.At the same time, California is increasing financial penalties on the state’s oil refineries through its Low Carbon Fuel Standards program.The Big Oil battle raises questions about future gasoline supply and prices at the pump if more oil companies abandon the state. In October, Phillips 66 announced plans to shut down its Los Angeles-area refinery, although it will retain its service stations here. The oil company said market conditions, not recent state policies, drove the decision.

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Waste

Environmental groups sue FDA over agency’s refusal to restrict phthalates

Agency has either ignored petitions or ruled against taking action against chemical that presents serious health risksA coalition of environmental groups has sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the use of highly toxic phthalates in plastic food packaging because the chemicals have been found to leach at alarming rates and present a serious health risk, especially for developing children.The suit is the latest salvo in an ongoing eight-year battle in which advocates have pressured the FDA to ban the chemicals’ use in food packaging, but the agency has sided with industry that opposes the calls. Since 2016, the FDA has either illegally ignored petitions or rejected demands to revoke a 40-year-old authorization for the chemicals that is based on long-outdated science. Continue reading...

A coalition of environmental groups has sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the use of highly toxic phthalates in plastic food packaging because the chemicals have been found to leach at alarming rates and present a serious health risk, especially for developing children.The suit is the latest salvo in an ongoing eight-year battle in which advocates have pressured the FDA to ban the chemicals’ use in food packaging, but the agency has sided with industry that opposes the calls. Since 2016, the FDA has either illegally ignored petitions or rejected demands to revoke a 40-year-old authorization for the chemicals that is based on long-outdated science.The health groups in a statement called the FDA’s refusal to restrict the chemicals “unconscionable”.“The FDA is knowingly putting millions of people in the US at risk of life-altering health problems by continuing to greenlight uses of phthalates that contaminate our food,” said Katherine O’Brien, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of the suit’s lead plaintiffs. “FDA’s decision defies decades of science and the agency’s core purpose of keeping the food supply safe.”The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Phthalates are a class of nearly 30 chemicals used as plasticizers in plastic containers, kitchen utensils and food preparation materials, among other uses. Researchers have found them in most food samples tested in recent years, and very low levels of exposure are linked to birth defects and pre-term birth. They are thought to cause developmental harms for fetuses and children, especially the reproductive system and brain – kids who have been exposed risk reduced IQ, and boys risk genital defects and infertility.Phthalates are also particularly dangerous because they have been found to mimic the human body’s hormones.The European Union has banned or restricted some phthalate compounds in food contact, but few regulations exist in the US. However, three types of phthalates have been banned for use in kids’ toys in the US because children were ingesting the chemicals.The lack of regulations is due in part to industry pressure on the FDA, public health advocates allege. The American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers, has attacked research on phthalates’ ubiquity and dangers, and argues that not all phthalates present a risk. Claims that they do create “unnecessary public alarm about our nation’s food safety”, the council wrote in a statement.The FDA has largely agreed with that view. The coalition that filed the lawsuit first petitioned the FDA to revoke authorizations for phthalate use in food contact in 2016. It highlighted decades of scientific evidence linking the chemicals to health risks, especially for kids.The FDA did not respond to the petition for five years, violating the law, which requires a response within six months. The groups in 2021 sued the FDA, forcing it to respond. In 2022, the agency denied the petition, arguing that industry had already abandoned food contact use for most phthalates.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe groups filed an appeal to reconsider, but the FDA upheld its decision in October 2024, allowing phthalates to continue to be used without restrictions. The agency wrote that it “found that available information does not support grouping all 28 phthalate chemicals into a single class assessment”.Public health advocates say the agency is echoing industry talking points.“The FDA has decided to ignore years of research and failed to take action to protect our health from these chemicals widely known to cause harm, allowing business as usual for companies who profit from their use,” said Maria Doa, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, a co-litigant.The new suit asks a judge to order a ban on the chemical class.In the meantime, people can protect themselves by avoiding food in plastic containers, using glass containers in the kitchen, avoiding plastic kitchenware and eating fewer processed foods.

Chemicals
Food
Health

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