Plastic chemicals linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide
Plastic food packaging can expose people to chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA)
Shutterstock/Trong Nguyen
Hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of cases of heart disease worldwide may be linked to chemicals in common plastic products, suggesting that more stringent regulations on such toxins could benefit public health.
Maureen Cropper at the University of Maryland and her colleagues assessed the public health impact of exposure to three types of chemicals primarily used in plastics: bisphenol A (BPA), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). BPA and DEHP are found in plastic food packaging and PBDEs…
