From: internetado@bbs.alt119.net   
      
   A new database catalogs 16,000 chemicals found in plastics and   
   identifies more than 4,200 that are potentially hazardous to human   
   health and the environment   
      
   Plastics contain thousands of chemicals that are potentially hazardous   
   to human health and may leach into the environment or food—but the vast   
   majority of them are not currently regulated, according to a new report   
   and database funded by the Norwegian Research Council.   
      
   The report, released last week, expands the number of known chemicals   
   in plastics from 13,000 to 16,000. Despite about 6 percent of these   
   being subject to global regulations, more than a quarter are thought to   
   be toxic, the researchers found.   
      
   “Only 980 of those highly hazardous chemicals have been regulated by   
   agencies around the world, leaving us with 3,600 chemicals that are   
   unregulated—and these are only the known chemicals,” Martin Wagner,   
   first author of the report and a biologist at the Norwegian University   
   of Science and Technology, says to CNN’s Sandee LaMotte. “There are   
   many more unregulated chemicals that we’re just unaware of how they may   
   be hazardous to our own health or the environment.”   
      
   “This is the most comprehensive report to date,” Bethanie Carney   
   Almroth, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden   
   who did not contribute to the project, tells Nature News’ Nicola Jones.   
   “The numbers presented are jarring.”   
      
   At this point in human history, plastics are everywhere—their tiny   
   fragments pollute the environment, as well as both bottled and tap   
   water. Humans produce about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste   
   each year. But these plastics also contain chemicals that can cause   
   problems for both our bodies and the planet—exposure to these toxins   
   has been linked to health problems including cancers, birth defects and   
   endocrine system disruption.   
      
   “We’re finding hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic chemicals in   
   people now, and some of them have been linked to adverse health   
   outcomes,” Jane Muncke, a co-author of the report and managing director   
   of the Food Packaging Forum non-profit in Switzerland, says to Reuters’   
   Gloria Dickie.   
      
   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/plastics-contain-thous   
   nds-more-chemicals-than-thought-and-most-are-unregulated-report-   
   inds-180983967/   
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