EPA panel warns plastics threaten kids’ health — Bayer says evidence lacking

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A committee of expert advisers is calling for stronger environmental regulations to protect children from plastics and other harmful chemicals, despite a dissenting industry position claiming there is little evidence that plastic is toxic to children. 

The Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee was asked a year ago by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review scientific findings and then weigh in on several questions related to how plastic and related chemicals may affect children and what the agency should do about it.

The committee’s responses were posted publicly to the EPA website last week. A letter from the committee signed by 23 scientists, local government officials, health experts and advocates, pointed to “significant human health concerns” across the entire life cycle of plastic, with children especially vulnerable, and laid out several moves the agency should take.

“The science is clear that plastic pollution can harm children’s health and raise risks of developmental disabilities, birth defects, cancers, and other serious diseases — especially in communities that are subject to cumulative and aggregate exposures,” the committee letter states. “These harms can occur throughout the life cycle of plastics.”

Committee members warned that plastic can harm children’s health from the extraction of fossil fuels used as building blocks for plastic, to production, use, and disposal or recycling. Getting fossil fuels out of the ground brings air pollutants such as particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and producing plastic uses a variety of toxic chemicals including bisphenol-A (BPA), various per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), phthalates and flame retardants that can also escape during use, incineration or recycling. 

These pollutants — and several more of the more than an estimated 16,000 chemicals in plastics — are linked to a variety of health issues, including developmental, reproductive and immune system problems, respiratory issues and some cancers. They found that children of color or those in low-income communities are most at risk.

“Plastic pollution is not just plastic waste, it’s all the pollution and harmful chemicals related to plastics from beginning to end, starting with fossil fuels and continuing with plastic products and plastic waste,” said Veena Singla, an affiliate researcher with the University of California, San Francisco, and one of the letter’s signees. “Children also have higher exposures to many chemicals because they breathe, eat and drink more for their body weight compared to adults.” 

“Plastic pollution is not just plastic waste, it’s all the pollution and harmful chemicals related to plastics from beginning to end.” – Veena Singla, University of California, San Francisco

The committee gave the EPA multiple suggestions to reduce kids’ exposures. The top priority: less plastic.

“When plastics are not essential, we should be getting rid of them,” said Jean-Marie Kauth, a professor and researcher at Benedictine University and signee of the letter. 

Other top priorities, they said, should be supporting an international plastics treaty that aims to reduce plastic production, and testing chemicals and additives in both virgin and recycled plastics for any harmful health effects before allowing them to be used. 

Several suggestions encouraged the agency to strengthen or more rigorously enforce existing pollution regulations that would limit plastic-related pollution, including the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule.

Lone dissenting voice 

In an unprecedented move, the committee issued a second letter to the EPA, contradicting many claims made by the majority of committee members in the first letter. The second letter was signed by just one member, Dr. S. Eliza Lockwood, a senior science fellow and medical affairs lead at Bayer Crop Science. Bayer is currently battling thousands of lawsuits alleging its Roundup herbicide causes cancer. 

Lockwood said the “consensus” from the scientific papers reviewed “is that there are no clear associations between childhood plastic exposure and negative health outcomes,” including cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity and other problems.

Lockwood said the most concerning exposures for children are via handling e-waste, which she agreed should be prioritized.

“Outside of these situations, there is very little evidence that plastic products are toxic to humans or animals,” she wrote, also encouraging the prioritization of tackling ocean plastic waste.

“Outside of these situations, there is very little evidence that plastic products are toxic to humans or animals.” -Dr. S. Eliza Lockwood, Bayer Crop Science

Acknowledging that it is “very difficult to conduct randomized controlled studies on healthy human subjects,” she also cited the lack of studies on the harms of microplastics in humans, said children’s exposure to BPA is minimal, and noted that phthalates allowed in the US have undergone extensive testing. 

“Without clear evidence that children are being exposed to these chemicals, and without delineating the health impacts that these classes of chemicals are causing, it is alarmist to call these compounds ‘chemicals of concern,’” she wrote. 

Bayer did not respond to requests for comment on Lockwood’s letter. 

Singla said the two letters represent different approaches to interpreting the scientific literature. 

“The majority letter took the approach recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, relying on systematic reviews that consider the entire body of scientific evidence objectively, consistently and transparently,” she said.

Political environment 

The committee’s advice, solicited under a Biden administration, comes during a much different political environment. The EPA under President Trump has taken aim at dozens of regulations — including the ones mentioned in the letter — in a purported effort to spur business and innovation. The US also signaled its opposition to any plastic production caps in the most recent United Nations’ plastic treaty talks.  

Kauth, however, said the issue of plastic harming children is on federal agencies’ radar as it was raised in the first Make America Healthy Commission, or MAHA, report, though she said industry influence seems to have watered down the second report from the commission.  

“The FDA and EPA haven’t lived up to promises to protect children,” she said.

In an emailed statement an EPA spokesperson said the agency is “actively engaging with the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee to review their recommendations.” 

Singla said that their suggestions, whether taken up by the EPA or other regulatory bodies, could significantly bolster kids’ health. 

“I hope the EPA and other agencies will follow the science,” she said. “The recommendations are also relevant to other governments at local, state and international levels as well as communities — collective action to cut plastic pollution, no matter where it happens, will help protect children’s health.” 

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