We knew plastics are harmful, but a new report by the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health makes clear just how much harm plastics do at every step of their lifecycles.
As reported in Inside Climate News, “…global plastic production, use and disposal patterns are responsible for significant harm to human health, the environment, and the economy, and are causing deep societal injustices, particularly to children.”
A lead author of the report, Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and director of Boston College’s Global Public Health Program and Global Observatory on Planetary Health, said “The level of scientific certainty is absolute,” he said. “There are still details to be worked out about the exact magnitude, but there is no doubt whatsoever that plastic causes disease, disability, premature death, economic damage, and damage to ecosystems at every stage of its life cycle. And the life cycle begins with the extraction of the oil, the coal, and the gas that are the building blocks for 98 to 99 percent of plastics.”
- Inside Climate News story: A New Research Review Describes Plastics, ‘From Cradle to Grave,’ as a Toxics Crisis and Says the UN Must Act to Limit Production’
- Original report: Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, published in Annals of Global Health:
- The Plastic Crisis, Human Dignity, and Care for our Common Home, by Cardinal Michael Czerny [editorial in Annals of Global Health]
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