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Plastics and (the right to) health
Summary
This chapter examines how plastic pollution—particularly phthalate plasticizers—undermines the human right to health through endocrine disruption and cardiovascular harm, and reviews the legal obligations of states and private actors to address it. The authors apply a human rights framework to propose that any global plastics treaty must explicitly protect the right to health as a core objective.
While the science is still emerging, there is an increasing consensus that plastics have the potential to cause harm to human health, whether through the direct impacts of pollution or through the consumption of contaminated foods. For example, phthalates, often used as plasticisers by the plastics industry, are associated with a diverse range of health impacts such as adverse cardiovascular health and endocrine disruption. This chapter takes as its point of departure that plastics may significantly undermine the ability of individuals to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health and thereby threaten their enjoyment of the right to health, as well as associated rights such as the right to food. As such, the chapter traces the ways in which plastics may undermine achievement of the right to health. Second, a legal ‘landscape’ sets out the human rights obligations of both States and private actors to do more to tackle plastic pollution. Third and finally, we connect our findings to recent proposals for a plastics treaty, adopting a human rights-based lens to offer some suggestions to ensure that any such treaty fully protects the right to health.