Toxic plastic chemicals number in the thousands, most are unregulated, report finds

Life in plastic; it’s fantastic, but plastics and the chemicals used to create them have been linked to numerous harms to human health and the environment. Researchers have developed a database of all known chemicals used in plastic production for the first time. The database includes 16,000 plastic chemicals, with 4,200 considered highly hazardous. Only 980 of these chemicals have been regulated globally, leaving 3,600 unregulated. The report urges tighter regulation of plastics due to their threats to human health. The report also identifies chemicals that are persistent, bio-accumulative, and mobile. Regulatory agencies and scientific research contribute to the report’s credibility.