As global negotiators reconvene in Geneva to shape the world first legally binding plastics treaty a new Lancet report has sounded the alarm on the growing health risks from plastic pollution especially microplastics warning that urgent, evidence-based action is the only way to avert a public health and planetary disaster.
The report, published just before the latest round of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) discussions, lays out how plastics once hailed for their versatility have now become a global health hazard. “Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age,” the authors noted, citing health-related economic losses of over $1.5 trillion annually. And these losses hit the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, a leading epidemiologist and co-chair of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, said two factors make plastics uniquely dangerous: their overwhelming volume and the thousands of chemicals they contain. Since 1950, over 10 billion tons of plastic have been produced, half of it since 2002. Of that, 80% now pollutes the planet, persisting in land, water, air and the human body.
The Lancet report raises particularly troubling questions about microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) tiny fragments formed when larger plastics degrade. These particles are increasingly being found in the blood, lungs, breast milk, liver, kidney, colon, spleen, brain, placenta, and even in newborns’ meconium. Early research has shown that MNPs may penetrate key biological barriers such as the blood-brain barrier and placenta, raising fears about long-term, systemic effects.
The report links these particles to a range of serious health issues, including inflammatory bowel disease, liver cirrhosis, lung damage, heart attack, and stroke. While more research is needed to fully understand the extent of the harm, the early signals are disturbing enough to prompt immediate policy action, the authors argue.
The new Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics will now track and report on global progress in limiting exposure to plastics and their health impacts. It aims to hold governments accountable by collecting geographically and scientifically representative data from across the plastic life cycle—from manufacture to disposal.
Negotiators meeting in Geneva are under increasing pressure to move from voluntary measures to enforceable global rules. Environmentalists argue that unless the treaty caps plastic production and enforces transparency in chemical use, health harms will continue to rise unchecked.
The Lancet findings underscore that the plastics crisis is not just an environmental issue it is a looming public health emergency. As the world’s oceans, food chains, and bodies fill with plastic fragments, researchers and health experts agree: the clock is ticking, and the damage is already inside us.