Study calls for much more research on the potential risks from plastics
A new paper from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich has called for much more extensive research into the potential risk to human, animal and aquatic life, and to the environment, of the chemical substances widely found in plastics.
ETH researchers investigated plastic monomers, additives, and processing aids, reviewing more than 60 industrial, scientific, and regulatory data sources. From this, they identified more than 10,000 relevant chemical substances in the plastics.
They said in the report that more than 2,400 of these substances are “of potential concern”. Around 10% of these “are hardly studied” the paper said, while more than 50% of them are not adequately regulated in many parts of the world.
“Substantial information gaps exist in the public domain,” the authors said, “particularly on substance properties and use patterns.” They called on stakeholders in the plastics industry to carry out more research into the substances their materials contain, to avoid hazardous chemicals and to increase the amount of information about the content of plastics that consumers can access.
