2024-12-16 マサチューセッツ大学アマースト校
<関連資料>
- https://www.umass.edu/news/article/health-and-economic-costs-three-toxic-chemicals-used-plastics-estimated-15-trillion
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2412714121
プラスチックから有毒化学物質を除去することの利点The benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics
Maureen Cropper, Sarah Dunlop, Hudson Hinshaw, Christos Symeonides
December 16, 2024 121 (52) e2412714121
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412714121
Significance
Endocrine-disrupting and neurotoxic chemicals in plastics pose serious threats to human health. By examining exposures to three toxic chemicals found in plastics and their estimated health impacts, we provide evidence of the health benefits of reducing chemical exposures in plastics. For the year 2015, we estimate that eliminating exposures to BPA and DEHP in countries constituting one-third of the world’s population would have saved approximately 600,000 lives. Reducing PBDEs to threshold levels in 2015 for women giving birth in countries accounting for 20 percent of global births would have saved approximately 11.7 million Intelligence Quotient (IQ) points. We estimate that the economic benefit in 2015 of reductions in exposures to these chemicals is $1.5 trillion 2015 PPP dollars.
Abstract
More than 16,000 chemicals are incorporated into plastics to impart properties such as color, flexibility, and durability. These chemicals may leach from plastics, resulting in widespread human exposure during everyday use. Two plastic-associated chemicals—bisphenol A (BPA) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)—and a class of chemicals—brominated flame retardants [polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)]—are credibly linked to adverse health and cognitive impacts. BPA exposures are associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, DEHP exposure with increased all-cause mortality among persons 55 to 64 y old, and prenatal PBDE exposures in mothers with IQ losses in their children. We estimate BPA, DEHP, and PBDE exposures in 38 countries containing one-third of the world’s population. We find that in 2015, 5.4 million cases of IHD and 346,000 cases of stroke were associated with BPA exposure; that DEHP exposures were linked to approximately 164,000 deaths among 55-to-64 y olds; and that 11.7 million IQ points were lost due to maternal PBDE exposure. We estimate the costs of these health impacts to be $1.5 trillion 2015 purchasing power parity dollars. If exposures to BPA and DEHP in the United States had been at 2015 levels since 2003, 515,000 fewer deaths would have been attributed to BPA and DEHP between 2003 and 2015. If PBDE levels in mothers had been at 2015 levels since 2005, over 42 million IQ points would have been saved between 2005 and 2015.
