The health and economic costs of three toxic chemicals used in plastics are estimated at $1.5 trillion in a single year.

A new study co-authored by an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst estimates that adverse health effects linked to three toxic chemicals commonly found in plastics reached $1.5 trillion in a single year, under the form of premature deaths, chronic illnesses and lower IQ.

The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesanalyzed data from 38 countries, representing a third of the world’s population.

“More than 16,000 chemicals are incorporated into plastics to produce color, flexibility and durability, but we know very little about how most of them affect human health,” says Yongjoon Park, assistant professor of resource economics at UMass Amherst. “By looking at just three chemicals, we found significant health and economic costs and we believe these estimates are quite conservative.”

Bisphenol A (BPA), commonly found in food packaging, is an endocrine disruptor associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and reproductive disorders. Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), used in industrial food processing, household products, and electronics, has been linked to cardiovascular mortality and developmental problems. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), flame retardants added to synthetic textiles, furniture and other household products, are neurotoxic and impair the cognitive development of children when their mothers are exposed to them during pregnancy.

The study estimates some of the health and economic impacts of these chemicals for 2015, the year that provides the most comprehensive assessment based on data availability, revealing that:

• Exposure to BPA has been linked to 5.4 million cases of heart disease and 346,000 strokes, leading to 431,000 deaths. The economic toll of these deaths has been estimated at nearly 1 trillion 2015 international dollars.
• Exposure to DEHP, particularly among people aged 55 to 64, has been associated with approximately 164,000 deaths, resulting in economic losses of $398 billion.
• Exposure to PBDEs in pregnant women resulted in a loss of 11.7 million IQ points in children born that year, with associated productivity losses exceeding $80 billion.

Research has focused on these parameters because they are well established in the biomedical literature and their economic costs are substantial.

“Our goal was to quantify and assess the health impacts of these chemicals in as many countries as possible by 2015,” says Maureen L. Cropper, a distinguished professor of economics at the University of Maryland, who led the study. “In the United States, where we have exposure data going back to 2003, the health damage was much greater in the past.”

Research indicates that the United States, Canada, and members of the European Union have adopted measures to reduce exposure to BPA, DEHP, and PBDE. He credits these efforts with decreasing associated health risks over time. For example, cardiovascular mortality attributable to BPA in the United States decreased by 60% between 2003 and 2015 thanks to regulatory and voluntary measures by manufacturers.

Despite this progress, more than 70% of chemicals used in plastics have not yet been tested for toxicity.

“Protecting human health from the dangers of chemicals in plastics will require a paradigm shift in national chemicals legislation,” write the authors, who also include Sarah Dunlop (University of Western Australia), Philip Landrigan (Boston College) and Christos Symeonides (Royal Children’s Hospital).

They highlight the need for binding international agreements under the UN Global Plastics Treaty to protect public health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where plastic consumption is growing rapidly.