Plastic Health Umbrella Review

About

Now in one location, the PlasticHealthAware Dashboard provides an easily accessible, comprehensive and interactive overview of substantial and concerning evidence that chemicals in plastic – which leach out of products and get into us - are harming our health.

More evidence, more plastic chemicals and more human health harms call for chemical regulation before market release rather than long after the harm starts.

The PlasticHealthAware Dashboard is hosted by Boston College’s Global Observatory on Planetary Health and was developed in partnership with Minderoo Foundation.

The journey

Minderoo Foundation, in collaboration with JBI at the University of Adelaide, published an umbrella review, systematically synthesising vast amounts of research data from thousands of scientific studies on exposure to plastic chemicals and their impacts on human health.

The initial umbrella review included data up to 2020 and covered the most commonly used plastic chemicals that humans are exposed to – BPA (bisphenol A), phthalates (plasticisers), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PBDEs (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers), both of which are flame retardants, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

It found consistent and irrefutable evidence that plastic chemicals in every class examined harm human health across the entire human life span.

In collaboration with Boston College, the PlasticHealthAware dashboard leverages the published umbrella review methodology to update the data. The dashboard is hosted on Boston College’s Global Observatory on Planetary Health and is current to 2023 with continuing updates.

Key findings

1. We are exposed to chemicals in plastic through our daily lives

   Exposures start from preconception, continue throughout our lifespan and include bisphenols (such as bisphenol A), phthalates (plasticisers), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PBDEs (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers) and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

2. Exposure is linked to a wide range of health impacts

   The health impacts affect all stages of life, and include:

   

   Before birth and at birth

   miscarriage, pre-term birth, lower birth weight and head size, genital malformation

   

   Childhood

   lower IQ, ADHD, ASD, obesity, asthma, psychomotor development, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, thyroid function, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory markers, insulin resistance, reduced vaccine response

   

   Adulthood

   endometriosis, sperm concentration and quality, diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, obesity, liver cancer, kidney cancer, lung cancer, hepatic disease, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, thyroid function, malignant melanoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, gestational diabetes and hypertension

3. None of the plastic chemicals groups examined can be considered safe

4. We cannot assume unstudied plastic particles or chemicals are safe

5. The plastic chemicals examined are a tiny fraction of the thousands used in plastics for which we also cannot assume safety

   Many thousands of chemicals are used in plastics. The umbrella review found that most plastic chemicals, as well as polymers and microplastics, have been insufficiently or never studied for human health effects.
   
   Considering the evidence of harm for the few chemicals that have been examined, we cannot assume safety for the remainder and a precautionary approach is essential.

6. Chemicals in plastic must be regulated before market release

   The burden of proof needs to be reversed. Chemicals used in plastic must be tested for hazard before market release to demonstrate safety prospectively rather than civil society having to demonstrate harm long after it starts to then drive regulation retrospectively.

The evidence

The findings from the original Umbrella Review are accessible through:

What does this mean for human health?

Our key findings show increased health risks at every stage of life. Watch the video below to learn more and find out how you can be part of the solution.

We need a Global Plastics Treaty

The potential impact of plastic chemicals on our health requires a global response. There is currently a Global Plastics Treaty being negotiated by countries which could provide a regulatory framework to protect human health from the impact of these chemicals.

FAQs

Creators

The original Umbrella Review was a collaboration between Minderoo Foundation and JBI.

Minderoo Foundation:

Christos Symeonides (a,b), Yannick Mulders (a), Sarah Dunlop (a,c)


(a) Minderoo Foundation
(b) Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia

(c) School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Australia

JBI, University of Adelaide:

Janine Dizon (a,b), Timothy Barker (a), Ashley Whitehorn (a), Tania Marin (a,b), Danielle Pollock (a), Edoardo Aromataris (a)  (a) JBI, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia(b) College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

PlasticHealthAware is a collaboration between Boston College and Minderoo.

Mulders Y.*, Cann, S., Carpenter, C., Chiles, T., Kabeya H.*, Lyons A.*, Mack, M., Sonn C., Symeonides, C.*, Thapa K., Dunlop S.*, Landrigan P. (2025) Global Observatory on Planetary Health: PlasticHealthAware (Version 1.0). Boston College, Boston. https://plastichealthaware.bc.edu/

* Minderoo Foundation