Study: Exposure to Three Chemicals in Plastics Cost $1.5 Trillion in 2015 Alone

Department of Economics researcher is the lead author on a paper on the economic costs of BPA, DEHP and PBDEs, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Using existing biomedical research on the negative health effects of three chemicals found in plastics—Bisphenol A (BPA), Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—a team of researchers led by Department of Economics Distinguished University Professor Maureen Cropper recently set out to estimate the economic costs of these compounds in 38 countries worldwide.

The researchers specifically looked at the financial costs associated with deaths linked to BPA and DEHP exposure, and the cost of lost productivity resulting from PBDE exposure’s impact on children’s IQ. They estimated costs in 2015, the year that provided the most complete datasets needed to make these estimates.

They found that BPA exposure was linked to 431,000 deaths, a cost of $1 trillion in economic losses in 2015 international dollars, and that DEHP exposure was linked to 164,000 deaths among individuals aged 55-64, equivalent to $398 billion in economic losses. The children of pregnant women exposed to PBDE during 2015 lost a cumulative 11.7 million IQ points, the researchers also found, adding up to lost productivity costs of more than $80 billion.

“Our reason for quantifying these health effects was to focus on the damages associated with three of the best studied chemicals in plastics and to estimate exposures in as many countries as we could,” said Cropper.

The paper’s co-authors include Yongjoon Park (UMass Amherst), Sarah Dunlop (University of Western Australia), Hudson Hinshaw (University of Maryland), Philip Landrigan (Boston College) and Christos Symeonides (Royal Children’s Hospital).

“Looking at just three chemicals, we found significant health and economic costs—and we believe these estimates to be quite conservative,” said Park in a release.

The authors note in the paper that the total economic costs of the health consequences of chemicals in plastics are likely much greater than the estimates they were able to calculate; the 38 countries included in the study represent only one-third of the world’s population.

In addition, the authors’ estimates of economic losses concern only those linked to the medical conditions attributed to BPA, DEHP and PBDEs that are identified in the paper. As they write, “… more than 70% of the chemicals incorporated into plastics have never been tested for safety or toxicity and … their possible harms to human health are not known.”

The good news is that, in the U.S., exposure to BPA and DEHP has declined since 2003. For example, BPA-linked cardiovascular deaths in the U.S. decreased by 60% from 2003 to 2015, due to regulatory and voluntary actions by manufacturers. IQ losses per 100,000 births attributable to PBDEs also fell, from 324,000 in 2005 to 175,000 in 2015.

“These findings demonstrate that BPA, DEHP and PBDEs can be successfully removed from plastics,” Cropper added. “We note, however, that the health hazards of these chemicals were not recognized until many years after their introduction into U.S. markets. We hope that chemical regulation will evolve to prevent this from occurring in the future.”

Read “The benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics” in PNAS

Photo is by iStock

Published on Tue, Dec 17, 2024 - 3:28PM