The Plastic Crisis: A Health and Environmental Emergency
Reality Roundtable 15
February 10th, 2025
(Conversation recorded on January 21st, 2025)
Show Summary
Many of us are familiar with the problem of plastics as a distant issue in the ocean, primarily affecting fish and sea turtles. While these environmental effects are critical, the full scope of plastic’s repercussions on human health and well-being is largely unknown by most people, even as the research shows alarming – and growing – adverse effects. What do we need to know about this pervasive material and how it affects the human body?
Today, Nate is joined by environmental health researchers Leo Trasande and Linda Birnbaum, as well as environmental policy advocate Christina Dixon, to discuss the harmful effects of plastic on human health and the ongoing global policy efforts to regulate the plastic and petrochemical industries. Their conversation dives into the risks of frequent plastic exposure, paths toward a world with reduced plastics use, and what it might mean for the economy if we made – or did not make – significant changes to the ways we use plastic.
How can we balance the requirement for essential plastics with the urgent need to reduce our production and consumption of these toxic materials? What further unknown health effects are still in need of research - especially in the case of thousands of untested chemicals used on the market? Lastly, what is the current state of regulation on plastic production and consumption, and how can everyday citizens play a role in shaping the future of the plastic industry?
About Leo Trasande
Dr. Leo Trasande is the Jim G. Hendrick MD Professor, Director of the Division of Environmental Pediatrics, and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine. He also serves on the faculty of the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and the NYU College of Global Public Health. Leo is an internationally renowned leader in environmental health. His research focuses on the impacts of chemicals on hormones in our bodies. He has also led the way in documenting the economic costs for policy makers of failing to prevent diseases of environmental origin proactively.
About Linda Birnbaum
Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S, was director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) from 2009 to 2019. As board certified toxicologist, Linda also served as a federal scientist for 40 years, including 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research. Birnbaum is now a Special Volunteer at NIEHS and conducts research as part of the Mechanistic Toxicology Branch. In October 2010, she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health.
About Christina Dixon
Christina Dixon is a campaign leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in the UK, using policy, advocacy, and corporate campaigning skills towards environmental issues. Christina currently leads the EIA’s plastics treaty campaign, where she oversees a diverse and highly skilled team of legal, policy and campaigning experts combating plastic (over)production & pollution, waste trade, commercial whaling, illegal marine species trade, and bycatch.
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
00:00 - Linda Birnbaum info; Leo Trasande info; Christina Dixon info
TGS episodes on plastics: Jane Muncke, Martin Scheringer, Jeremy Grantham, Shanna Swan, Sian Sutherland
02:22 - We produce about *400 million tonnes of plastic waste per year
02:54 - Microplastics in the human brain
03:11 - Hourly (based on yearly numbers) plastic waste of *20 billion toothpaste tubes, 20 billion shoes, and 5 billion cell phones around the world yearly
*Nate misspoke this statistic in the episode.
03:57 - Chemicals in plastics + microplastics and human health
04:48 - UN Global Plastics Treaty
06:13 - Pete Myers
08:30 - Plastic pollution and climate
09:15 - How plastics are made
09:52 - Plastic and wildfires
10:44 - Impact of microplastics on fertility + more info
10:48 - Microplastics and heart disease + prematurity (Section 17) + cancers
13:47 - Nanoplastics and human health + aquatic organisms
15:13 - Styrofoam lasts for a million years
17:38 - 350,000 chemicals registered for production and use
18:16 - Lack of toxicity data about most chemicals + more info
19:30 - Humans and livestock outweigh wild terrestrial mammals 50:1
20:01 - Declining sperm count, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, PFAS
20:32 - We poop out a credit card’s worth of plastic every week
21:09 - Bisphenol, phthalates, flame retardants
21:43 - 0.5% of the weight of our brains is made of plastics
23:16 - Phthalates and the cardiovascular system + *100,000 american deaths attributable to phthalate exposure + New England study
26:40 - Plastic waste exported to the Global South
27:09 - Health impacts of plastics at all stages of production
30:20 - Ultra-processed food and exposure to plastics + more info
31:30 - FDA stance on plastics in food
34:49 - BPA in baby bottles replaced with BPS and BPF
36:50 - Public awareness of plastic pollution
39:29 - Plastic bans around the world
41:30 - California bans plastic chemicals
42:06 - EU regulation on plastics
43:29 - Packaging accounts for 40% of plastic waste
44:10 - Disease costs from plastics are 250 billion dollars in the US + cost of cleaning up PFAS
46:14 - Wildfires and health impacts + plastic chemicals in wildfire smoke
46:47 - Agent Orange
47:36 - Shrinking alligator penises
48:16 - Dioxin concentration in those exposed to 9/11
48:45 - Soil dioxin levels in East Palestine, Ohio
49:44 - Arthur Pigou + Pigouvian Tax
51:43 - Health Care Without Harm
51:57 - Healthcare system removing mercury
54:23 - PFAS measurement tests
59:05 - Statement on behalf of the ‘like minded group’ in Busan
1:00:33 - Noncommunicable diseases and mortality
1:01:04 - One third of population is overweight or obese
1:01:47 - Plastics and obesity
1:02:48 - Tobacco industry misinformation tactics
1:05:32 - Global heating records in the past few years
1:06:47 - The Handmaid’s Tale
1:08:07 - No hazard data for over 10,000 plastics chemicals
1:08:53 - Increasing colorectal cancer in young adults + increase in reproductive cancers
1:09:58 - Epigenetic impacts of plastic exposure
1:10:52 - Ozone Layer hole + Montreal Protocol
1:15:22 - Yearly global plastics production
1:15:52 - Low-birth weight babies in Asian countries + links to PFAS
1:20:17 - Senegal Plastic Treaty Working Group
1:27:54 - Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, Climate Impact of Primary Plastic Production | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Energy Analysis & Environmental Impact Division
1:29:41 - OECD estimation of plastic exposure will be majority in low income countries by 2060
1:31:35 - Aluminum, cardboard, glass, and plastic recycling life cycles
1:32:54 - Reuse, refill, and repair initiatives
1:34:32 - Bulk of plastic mitigation funding in the UK goes to recycling
1;35:35 - Phthalates exposure is also seen in Amish populations
1:37:44 - Conspicuous Consumption