On March 30th, CNN published an article titled “Millions of Preterm Births and Thousands of Infant Deaths Linked to Plastic Chemicals,” which highlighted a recent study co-authored by Dr. Leonardo Transande, director of the Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards at NYU Langone Health.
The study quantified the global burden of preterm births (PTBs) associated with two phthalates, Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and diisononyl phthalate (DINP), a common replacement for DEHP. It found that in 2018, 1.93 million PTBs and 72,500 deaths could be linked to plastics and that countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia (regions that have rapidly growing plastics industries) shouldered most of the premature birth health burdens. In the article, Dr. Trasande highlighted that “We are playing a dangerous game of Whac-A-Mole with hazardous chemicals. We have a situation in which concerns come up about one chemical, and industry simply replaces it with a chemical analog that may have the same, if not worse, effects.”