Lancet Reports Growing Global Health Threat from Plastic Pollution

As UN member states gather in Geneva in August 2025 for the final round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty, a series of reports and expert initiatives highlight the urgent and underrecognized health dangers posed by plastic pollution. Plastic production, projected to nearly triple by 2060, contributes to a wide range of health risks through airborne emissions, chemical exposures, and environmental contamination, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. Plastic waste fosters the spread of vector-borne diseases and antimicrobial resistance, while microplastics have been detected in human tissues, raising concerns despite limited research on their full health impacts. In response, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics initiative has been launched to systematically monitor the health effects of plastics across their life cycle and track progress in mitigating these risks. These scientific assessments underscore the need for a comprehensive, legally binding international instrument addressing plastic pollution's entire lifecycle, as mandated by the UN Environment Assembly resolution. Experts call for integrating health considerations centrally into global plastic governance to protect human and planetary health from the escalating crisis.