B. THE EXORBITANT COSTS TO SOCIETY'S HEALTH OF CHEMICALS IN PLASTICS
· The results of the first studies into the health costs associated with the use of plastics are particularly worrying
A 2024 study27(*) quantified the health effects of three key chemicals associated with plastics - PBDEs, BPA and DEHP - and translated them into economic costs.
The results pertain only to the United States, which at the time was the only country for which biomonitoring data existed on the population's exposure to plastic chemicals. Only one or two health effects per chemical were selected.
For costs related to exposure to PBDEs, the study considers the economic costs resulting from a decline in cognitive performance, intelligence quotient and human capital following exposure to PBDEs in the uterus. They are estimated at $202 billion for 2010.
For the costs associated with exposure to BPA, the study focuses on the cost of increased heart disease, estimated at $166 billion, and the cost of strokes, estimated at $62.4 billion because of lost productivity.
For the costs associated with exposure to DEHP, the study considers the increased mortality in adulthood between the ages of 55 and 64, based on the value of statistical life. It concluded that more than 40,000 additional deaths a year could be attributed to DEHP exposure in the US population alone, at a cost of $245 billion.
In total, the costs would amount to $675 billion a year for these three chemicals and for the United States alone.
Beyond the fact that these 40,000 deaths are unacceptable, quantifying the negative externalities of plastic challenges the widespread idea that plastic is cheap. It is the public who bears the effects and costs of these chemicals, not their producers.
· Indirect costs linked to the production of plastics are also very high
Chemicals have consequences in terms of pollution and human health throughout the plastics life cycle.
The primary production of plastics is responsible for four times more greenhouse gas emissions than the aviation sector.
Seventy-five percent of these emissions are thought to occur during the extraction of raw materials and the production of monomers and other chemicals.
The workers are particularly exposed to pollution caused by plastics, and high levels of toxic products are found in the air, soil and aquifers around production sites. Benzene, for example, is associated with an increased risk of cancer in local populations, as in Louisiana's 'cancer valley' in the United States.
The Minderoo-Monaco Commission28(*) also quantified plastics' impact on pollution and human health, estimating it at several hundred billion dollars a year. These figures still need to be refined and confirmed, but they do raise awareness of the health and public spending costs generated by the plastics industry.
* 27 Christos Symeonides et al., « An umbrella review of meta-analyses evaluating associations between human health and exposure to major classes of plastic-associated chemicals », Annals of Global Health, 2024; 90 (1).
* 28 Philip J Landrigan et al., « The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on plastics and human health », Annals of Global Health, 2023, March 21. Erratum in Annals of Global Health, 2023 October 11.