The US EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) summarized the science on plastic pollution and children’s health and made recommendations to the Agency that are a wake-up call on the health impacts of plastic pollution.
The majority of committee members found “…the science is clear that plastic pollution can harm children’s health and raise risks of developmental disabilities, birth defects, cancers, and other serious diseases — especially in communities that are subject to cumulative and aggregate exposures. These harms can occur throughout the life cycle of plastics. Limiting or eliminating plastic pollution across the life cycle will reduce known risks to children’s health. The most impactful actions are those that prevent pollution in the first place by reducing plastic production and use in favor of safer alternatives.”
The majority recommendations, which I helped lead, are also relevant to other governments at local, state and international levels as well as communities everywhere—collective action to tackle plastic pollution, no matter where it happens, will help protect children’s health.
Check out the highlights in the graphics, and the full letter here.
About the author
Veena Singla, PhD is an affiliate at UCSF and consults for non-profits and academia on environmental health science and policy. Her research investigates how toxic chemicals and pollution related to systems of materials use, production, and disposal, including plastics, threaten the health of impacted communities, especially those experiencing environmental injustices. Her work seeks to address health disparities linked to harmful environmental exposures using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating environmental health, exposure science, public health, and policy expertise.
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