The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics
Landrigan PJ, Dunlop S, Treskova M, et al. (2025). The Lancet.
What they found
Launches an indicator-based global monitoring system for plastics and health. It states that plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age, with health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion a year, and that production grew from 2 Mt in 1950 to 475 Mt in 2022, projected to reach 1,200 Mt by 2060.
Read this too
Two Department of Error notices (September and October 2025) are linked to the paper; we have not read what they correct.
- What it can't tell you
- A review and framework paper, not new primary data. The cost figure is a modelled estimate built on attributable-fraction assumptions. Written in part to inform the plastics treaty negotiations.
- Funding
- Minderoo Foundation and Monaco Scientific Centre, per Europe PMC/Crossref
- Topics
- Health effects, Chemicals
- Checked against
- Abstract (Europe PMC, PMID 40769171); errata via Crossref (10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01772-6 and 02125-7), content not read