In Geneva, negotiators from 175 nations are trying to hammer out the first ever legally binding

treaty on plastic pollution. The key sticking point is whether it should mandate cuts in plastic

production. Oil-producing nations, including the United States, oppose that as fossil fuels

are a key ingredient in plastics. The urgency of the talks was

underscored this week by a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet. It calls

plastics a grave growing and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health. Tracy Woodruff

is a professor at the UC San Francisco Medical School and one of the

authors of the Lancet study. Tracy, a grave growing and under-recognized danger. What is that danger?

Explain the danger to us. Plus, it contains thousands of toxic chemicals. Some of them we know

something about and some of them we don't know anything about. But the ones that we do know about, we know that they can lead to increased risk of multiple different types of chronic health effects.

For example, one chemical that's used commonly in plastics to which we are all exposed are thallates.

These are chemicals that are used in everything from vinyl flooring, curtains, plastic

couches, even in your car, cosmetics, fragrances.

These chemicals are ubiquitous.

They're measured in everybody, and we know they increase the risk of multiple adverse

health conditions like obesity and diabetes, and they can increase the risk of preterm birth.

There's also an increase

production of plastics currently planned. Plastic production will triple in the next 30 years. That means

more plastic products and more plastic chemicals to which we will be exposed. Talk about the production

picking up the pace. Why is it accelerating? Plastics are made from fossil fuels,

oil and gas, and the fossil fuel industry is turning to plastics to stay profitable. Making plastic

and the petrochemicals used in plastic is more profitable than using it for fuel and energy

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