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Reducing pediatric healthcare plastic pollution: Call to action
Summary
This paper highlights that hospitals are a significant and underrecognized source of plastic pollution, generating large volumes of single-use plastics that degrade into micro- and nanoplastics. Children are especially vulnerable due to their developing physiology and higher per-kilogram exposures. The authors call for clinical strategies to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics, transition to safer alternatives, and advance regulatory policies restricting harmful plastic additives in healthcare settings.
Plastic pollution is a growing global health threat, with healthcare an underrecognized contributor. Hospitals generate large volumes of single-use plastics from clinical care, pharmaceuticals, and sterile supply chains, accounting for nearly one-quarter of hospital waste. These materials, largely derived from fossil fuels, introduce more than 13,000 chemicals into the environment and frequently degrade into microplastics and nanoplastics that contaminate air, water, soil, and human biological systems. Children are uniquely vulnerable to plastic pollution due to developmental physiology and higher per-kilogram exposures. Pediatric health impacts may occur through micro- and nano-plastics and toxic plastic additives such as phthalates, bisphenols and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Reducing healthcare plastic use and waste offers direct and immediate opportunities to reduce children's exposures. Frontline clinical strategies to address healthcare plastic pollution include sustainability-oriented quality improvement efforts aimed at eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics, transitioning to safer material alternatives, optimizing clinical practice patterns, expanding reuse and reprocessing systems, and advancing regulatory policies that restrict harmful additives. Addressing healthcare plastic pollution is not only an environmental imperative but a critical pediatric health intervention.