Plastic Soup Foundation wants to know everything about plastic and its effect on human health

Plastic can cause birth defect. How plastic in the ocean impacts your health.

The Problem

What we know

Scientific evidence and publications in leading scientific magazines are piling up: chemicals in plastic can cause cancer, heart failure, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, arthritis, infertility and even damage unborn babies in the uterus.

Plastic is everywhere: plastic particles, nanoplastics and microplastics are in our food, in our drinks (tap water and bottles) and in the air we breathe. For example, tiny worn-down particles from car tires in the air and microfibres from synthetic clothing. Even cosmetics like lipstick, mascara, nail polish and anti-wrinkle cream contain plastic.

What is known so far about the adverse effects of plastic on human health is nothing short of alarming. Therefore, the Plastic Soup Foundation, together with scientists, has started the international platform ‘Plastics and the Human Health Connection’ to encourage new research. The Plastic Soup Foundation calls on businesses and Governments to start and fund much more scientific research. Time is running.

“It is necessary that we understand the extent to which toxic chemicals, plastics and global warming interact and damage human health”, says Susan Shaw, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at New York State University. “This is the front line of contemporary science. Here science can contribute to sustainable living in the future.”

Heather Leslie, senior researcher at the Department of Environmental Health at Vrije University in Amsterdam, endorses the urgency: “the dangers of plastic particles to the human health are becoming increasingly clear through a series of studies. Plastic waste is a persistent problem faced by the ocean, but it is time that it is recognized as a health problem.”

The Solution

To call attention to the health effects, the has Plastic Soup Foundation launched a new campaign on World Oceans Day, early June 2018. The main image of the campaign is the baby above, made of plastic waste from the ocean. The plastic baby symbolizes our children and grandchildren whom we will burden with our plastic waste problem, if we do not take firm action quickly. We are literally poisoning future generations. We call for action: Everybody should start a plastic diet now!

Read our Position Paper “Plastic and Human Health: alarming evidence” for additional information and references to a series of scientific studies.

With the donations we will expand the campaign and we will arrange more money for scientific research. Plastic Soup Foundation will do the dissemination of all research on this topic, so the whole world will know about this issue.

Read more about the Plastic Soup Foundation: https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/