BOSTON — Will industry finally be held accountable for the harmful health effects of plastic pollution? Quite possibly, according to various speakers at a press conference held at, said that the organization has been working tirelessly to put"health" front and center when it comes to regulating exposures to plastic pollution and, in particular, its endocrine-disrupting chemical by-products.
Trasande also touched on phthalates, noting that considerable evidence shows they contribute to placental inflammation and to preterm births. His team'sassociated exposure to diethylhexyl phthalate with a 45% increase in the odds of preterm birth, and in some cases, a twofold increase. Taken together with other research, this means that 5%-10% of US preterm births are linked to phthalate exposure, with direct medical costs of about $4 billion a year, Trasande said.
The cost of diseases associated with plastic pollution are estimated to be $340 billion a year in the United States, about double that in the European Union, which spends €160 billion a year, or 1.2% of the gross domestic product, on the management of these diseases. "These compounds are essentially everywhere and in everything — they're man-made pollutants," Belcher said."They have many, many uses because of their chemical structures and properties. They are resistant to degradation, which is a good thing for industrial applications but a very bad thing when these chemicals are released out into the environment, and are there, essentially, until the end of time in some form or another.
"Nafion by-products were found in 100% of the tested residents of Wilmington, as well as in their dogs and horses," said Belcher, whose group reported the findings in a. Because it was present in the horses, the researchers concluded that much of the exposure, consistent with other research done by the group, was probably coming from food and other components of the outside environment, rather than in the home.
"It's the first major regulation we've had on these chemicals, especially in drinking water, based on the Clean Drinking Water Act."
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