4,200 Chemicals of Concern in Plastics Filling Our Environment

Inundated. We are inundated with 16,235 chemicals present in the plastics filling our environment, says a new report in Nature. This meticulous inventory tells us that a subset of those, more than 4,200 of them, are chemicals of concern. The concern springs from one or more of the following properties. They migrate out of the plastics, don’t go away, accumulate in our bodies, or are known to be toxic.

Among the many effects these chemicals can have is to disrupt normal endocrine function, including the ways that our bodies regulate our weight. When we consider the rising burden of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that parallels the rise in obesity, it tests our patience with the bias that presumes obesity is simply a problem of unhealthy eating habits.

Let’s be clear. Rising exposure to endocrine-disrupting drugs and chemicals is a contributor to the rise of obesity worldwide. Broadly speaking, it is one of four major factors that contributes to this.

Complexity Outpacing Vigilance

Professor Martin Wagner, a biologist with expertise in endocrine-disrupting chemicals was lead author of this new paper. Reflecting on the incredible range of chemicals he and his colleagues found, Wagner said:

“We have this broad universe of chemicals in plastics. There is so much complexity with so many chemicals in plastics that they are outpacing our ability to make sure they are safe.”

Can We Choose to Avoid Them?

Personal choice and responsibility is a seductive concept for dealing with any health threat. But it seems that for the hazards of plastics, we have little choice. They are infiltrating our bodies, even our brains. Writing in The Atlantic, Annie Lowrey says there is no escape:

“Plastic is not just everywhere in our homes, but everywhere, period. The world produces so much plastic (more than 400 million metric tons a year, according to one estimate – roughly the combined weight of every human alive) that degraded nubbins coat the planet, detectable in the sedimentary depths of the Mariana Trench and the icy heights of Mount Everest.”

She embarks on a quest to take plastics out of her life. But in the end, she finds she cannot. Even basic tasks, like brushing her teeth, bring contact with plastics. She resigns herself to symbolic actions of plastic resistance.

A Plastic Ponzi Scheme

Jeroen Sonke, Théo Segur, and Silvia Bucci describe the failure of governments to protect us from plastic pollution as a “plastic Ponzi scheme” in NPJ Emerging Contaminants. Industry offers immediate gratification with plastic products and hides the devastation they cause by pushing environmental costs out of view. So long as we don’t ask questions or look at the piles of plastic waste accumulating in someone else’s backyard, everything seems okay.

But it surely is not.

Click here for the new paper by Wagner et al and here for further perspective. For free access to Lowrey’s essay, click here. Finally, for the plastic Ponzi scheme commentary, click here.

Photoelasticity and Color on a Plastic Plate, photograph by Takis Lazos, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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July 14, 2025