ArticleJournal of the Endocrine Society2024
Chemicals Used in Plastic Materials: An Estimate of the Attributable Disease Burden and Costs in the United States.
Article in Journal of the Endocrine Society, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 27 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Review of Biomonitoring for Atrazine and Atrazine Metabolites Using Blood, Urine, and Sweat-Based Assays.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Private, public, and bottled drinking water: Shared contaminant-mixture exposures and effects challenge.Environment international · 2025Pooled it
- Plasticizing Diabetes Care: The Metabolic Threat of Plastic-Associated Endocrine Disruptors and Micro-/Nanoplastics in Clinical Medicine.Current diabetes reports · 2026Review
- Measuring What Matters: Particle-Chemical Domains and Analytical Gaps in Biomonitoring of Micro- and Nanoplastics.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- From plastic spine hypothesis to decision-grade evidence: building a translational exposome framework for spine research.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Article
- Addressing contaminants of emerging concern in the United States public water systems.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- Preterm birth attributable to exposure to chemicals used in plastic materials: a global estimate.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Global Disparities in the Regulation of PFASs: The Risk of Shifting the PFAS Pollution Burden to Developing Countries.Environmental science & technology · 2026Review
- The "plastic spine" phenotype and the spine exposome: emerging links between micro- and nanoplastics and spinal disorders.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Article
- The assumption of a threshold is false in risk assessments for endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) when endogenous hormones being disrupted are already above any possible threshold: a policy failure by the US FDA.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2026Review
- EcoRxChoice.com- an SIDP-funded calculator integrating environmental metrics with antimicrobial stewardship.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2026Article
- Popular infection prevention myths related to single-use plastics.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2026Article
- Global health burdens of plastics: a lifecycle assessment model from 2016 to 2040.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2026Article
- Impact of nanoplastics emitted from incineration of polyethylene plastic on THP-1 macrophage viability and immune function.Journal of hazardous materials · 2026Article
- Review
- Health impacts of exposure to synthetic chemicals in food.Nature medicine · 2025Review
- Global environmental plastic dispersal under OECD policy scenarios toward 2060.Science advances · 2025Article
- Greening Infection Prevention and Control: Multifaceted Approaches to a Sustainable Future.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Micro- and nano-plastics, intestinal inflammation, and inflammatory bowel disease: A review of the literature.The Science of the total environment · 2024Review
- Making invisible chemicals used in plastic materials visible.EBioMedicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Context: Chemicals used in plastics have been described to contribute to disease and disability, but attributable fractions have not been quantified to assess specific contributions. Without this information, interventions proposed as part of the Global Plastics Treaty cannot be evaluated for potential benefits. Objective: To accurately inform the tradeoffs involved in the ongoing reliance on plastic production as a source of economic productivity in the United States, we calculated the attributable disease burden and cost due to chemicals used in plastic materials in 2018. Methods: We first analyzed the existing literature to identify plastic-related fractions (PRF) of disease and disability for specific polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE), phthalates, bisphenols, and polyfluoroalkyl substances and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We then updated previously published disease burden and cost estimates for these chemicals in the United States to 2018. By uniting these data, we computed estimates of attributable disease burden and costs due to plastics in the United States. Results: We identified PRFs of 97.5% for bisphenol A (96.25-98.75% for sensitivity analysis), 98% (96%-99%) for di-2-ethylhexylphthalate, 100% (71%-100%) for butyl phthalates and benzyl phthalates, 98% (97%-99%) for PBDE-47, and 93% (16%-96%) for PFAS. In total, we estimate $249 billion (sensitivity analysis: $226 billion-$289 billion) in plastic-attributable disease burden in 2018. The majority of these costs arose as a result of PBDE exposure, though $66.7 billion ($64.7 billion-67.3 billion) was due to phthalate exposure and $22.4 billion was due to PFAS exposure (sensitivity analysis: $3.85-$60.1 billion). Conclusion: Plastics contribute substantially to disease and associated social costs in the United States, accounting for 1.22% of the gross domestic product. The costs of plastic pollution will continue to accumulate as long as exposures continue at current levels. Actions through the Global Plastics Treaty and other policy initiatives will reduce these costs in proportion to the actual reductions in chemical exposures achieved.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.