Plastic pollution poses not only a threat to the environment and climate, but is also "a grave, growing and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health." On the eve of a final round of last-chance negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday, August 5, to agree on the world's first global treaty against plastic pollution – an agreement hindered by opposition from oil and gas-producing countries – the scientific community has raised alarm about a peril it considers widely "under-recognized" and which it now wants to put at the center of the debate.

On August 4, around 30 researchers from leading academic institutions published a report in The Lancet compiling the latest data on the many health impacts of plastics. Mirroring existing climate frameworks, they launched "The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics," a global initiative designed to document the health effects of plastics over time and track any progress made in mitigating them.

The report notes that plastics, at every stage of their life cycle – production, use, recycling and disposal – cause diseases and tens of thousands of deaths, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations. The economic losses tied to these health issues are estimated at more than $1.5 trillion (about €1.3 trillion) per year.

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