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20 | CURBING PLASTIC POLLUTION

HUMAN HEALTH
Plastic: a threat for human

health?

Following an initial report that attracted a lot of attention, the scientific group
coordinated by the Monaco Scientific Centre and the Boston College has started
a new study on the entire lifecycle of plastic, from the little explored viewpoint of

its effects on human health.

Following an in-depth review on plastic pollution and THE GROUNDWORK
2
global warming published in Annals of Global Health FOR A GLOBAL STUDY
in December 2020 and presented at Monaco Ocean
Week 2021, internationally renowned scientists are For this large-scale project, the Monaco Scientific
continuing their research on the risks of exposure Centre and the Boston College joined forces with
to plastic on human health. Beyond the increasingly the Minderoo Foundation, represented in Monaco
better-defined impact of plastic pollution on ecosys- by Sarah Dunlop, who runs the “Plastics and Human
tems, how far-reaching are plastic hazards on human Health” programme for this Australian organisation,
health? As alarm raisers, they pool their expertise in and paediatrician, specialising in child neurodeve-
order to carefully review the entire lifecycle of plastic. lopment, Christos Symeonides. Over two days, from
Monaco Ocean Week sought to foster this still rarely 22 to 23 March 2022, a core group of experts in the
addressed topic, which may well redefine the uses of fields of public health, toxicology, medicine, plane-
a material derived from the petrochemical era. tary health, exposure science and marine science,
examined and compiled current knowledge on this
matter, identified gaps and targeted areas requiring
further research as a matter of priority. In one of
the rooms at the Novotel Monte Carlo – for some
via videoconference – researchers from 9 countries
2. Signed by around forty experts under the aegis of the Monaco
Scientific Centre, the report “Human Health and Ocean Pollution” (France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States,
was published in Annals of Global Health, 86(1) in December 2020. Australia, Nigeria, Uruguay, Japan, Thailand), laid the
groundwork for a new transdisciplinary scientific stu-
dy which will be presented, with the backing of a ma-
jor scientific journal, at Monaco Ocean Week 2023.

"About 10,500 different chemicals are added to plastic to give it
properties of flexibility, stability, UV and flame resistance, and
IN it is these chemicals that leak out of the plastic and enter our
SIGHT bodies." Sarah Dunlop, Director of the Plastics and Human
Health Programme at the Minderoo Foundation