More than 16,000 chemicals are used to produce plastic – some of which are silently killing us.
Especially worry is the Di-2-ETYLHEXYLPHTHALATE, or Dehp, which is a chemical used to soften plastic products. It is almost in colorless inaccuracies, DeHP is found in everything starting from curtains and bathroom shoes to medical pipes, and has long been linked to health damage such as cancer.
New research indicates that the chemical category also causes deaths due to heart disease, especially in developing countries. According to a study reviewed by peers published last week at Lancet Ebiomedicine, nearly 350,000 people died in 2018 due to DeHP. The research represents the first global survey of cardiovascular mortality from chemicals, and is attributed to the exposure of DEHP plastic to more than 13 percent of all deaths of heart disease among adults between the ages of 55 to 64.
One of the most surprising researchers was the strong geographical contrast to the exposure to DeHP and relevant deaths. For example, the inhabitants of the Middle East and South Asia are more than six times more than Dehp more than their European counterparts. A share of cardiovascular deaths in these areas is also due to chemicals. The researchers found that in 2018, 10 percent of the deaths associated with heart disease in the United States and 8 percent in Europe were due to the exposure to DeHP. This number was higher than 17 percent in the Middle East and Southern Asia and more than 13 percent in East Asia and the Pacific.
Dehp and other phthalates contribute to cardiovascular mortality in part because they are endocrine conflicts, which means that they interfere with body hormones in ways that can increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. Thytalat also contributes to inflammation, another risk factor for heart disease, and they coexist with microblasts and intentions, which have been shown in a A pioneering study last year To increase the danger of people from a heart attack, stroke, or “death of any cause”.
Leonardo Trasandi, professor of pediatrics at New York University, Langon Health and one of the authors of the study, said the DEHP plastic is similar to a “wreckage” on human tissue. He said that policy makers should do more to reduce the use of DeHP in plastic materials, which are likely to be restrictions on the use of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, the type of plastic in which the most common DeHP is located. Some PVC model products include pipes, upholstery materials, and children’s toys, as well as – in some parts of the world – food packaging. The excessive use of these products has contributed DEHP pollution is wide -ranging In the air, soil and water.
The study indicates that geographical variations may be attributed to regional differences in plastic production, chemical regulations and “backward waste management sectors”. For example, India is experiencing an increase in the manufacture and use of plastic products, including PVC products, and has recently begun to restrict DeHP in food packages.
Many of the poorest countries import plastic waste from abroad, creating another possible way to exposure. Countries like Malaysia, India and Vietnam have obtained millions of tons of plastic waste from North America and Europe since 2021 – illegally illegally, according to what it said. Analyzes to World Trade Data From the Basel Working Network. In 2021, the United States alone exported 1.2 billion pounds of plastic waste to developing countries. Many of this plastic may be burned or dumped in non -regulatory waste burials, as they can release chemicals such as Dehp.
Jay Directo / AFP via Getty Images
The paper depends on a set of increasing evidence quickly that the manufacture of plastic, its use and its disposal creates a great burden for the developing world. In 2023, an analysis of the universal universal fund of nature found that the costs of the life cycle of plastic are at least eight times for countries with low and medium -income countries than it is for the same high income.
To reach their conclusions, Trasande and his team of researchers designed the contribution of phthalates to cardiovascular mortality using a survey of phthalate concentrations in urine samples with the causes of death after 10 years were reported in the National Death Index of the United States. Then they looked at the total number of deaths related to heart disease in the designated countries and regions, and specified unless the fracture did not happen if it was not DeHP.
“The research is consistent with what other studies found” regarding health risks of phthalates. Last year, A study of a third of the world’s population I found that Bisphenol A, or BPA – used in solid plastic products, such as food storage containers – contributed to 5.4 million cases of heart disease and 346,000 strikes in 2015. Electronics And some textiles – caused 11.7 million intelligence points.
The DeHP is not consistently organized in the world. The European Union, along with many other tribles, is restricted to No more than 0.1 percent by weight In children’s games and clothing, it accurately reduces their use in food communication materials and cosmetics. China has similar restrictions, and has banned Japan Dehp from food packaging and children’s products since 2003. India Legislation was approved in 2022 Reducing the amount of Dehp allowed to decline from food packaging.
The United States restricts DeHP in children’s games and some food packages, but not in cosmetics. In 2022, FDA And denied the petition From 11 Public and Environmental Health Group to DEHP and seven other virtues in food communication materials directly.
“There is no evidence of a threshold in which the display of philanthropic is safe,” Truessandi confirmed.
Trasandy said his research may affect the ongoing negotiations of the United Nations Global Plastic TreatyAppointment to the resumption of this August. The treaty of the treaty is to “end plastic pollution”, but delegates have increasingly turned their attention to dangerous chemicals in plastic products. Many scientists want the treaty to include lists of plastic and chemicals related to plastic that should be limited or wandering. Both PVC and PHTHALATES are among the great competitors of such menus.
Woodrov said research such as Trasand’s should also lead to home the need to limit public plastic production, not only the chemicals used in plastic. “There are important health benefits from determining the amount of plastic production,” she said. “Reducing our exposure to these chemicals in plastic will be a decisive part in the opposite direction of chronic disease in the United States.”
