Earth Day 2025 brings a sense of urgency as one considers the range of issues challenging children’s health and wellbeing. As parents and clinicians, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the complexity of environmental topics and wonder how we can possibly help raise awareness and encourage realistic steps in a healthier direction.
One option is to narrow our focus to one segment of environmental health at a time. For example, today, let’s consider plastics, which can impact health in unexpected ways, including:
- Physical toxicity
- Particle effects
- Chemical toxicity
- Vectors for microbial pathogens
The facts are that plastic waste represents approximately 80% of all marine litter.
An estimated 10 million metric tons of plastics are released to the oceans each year.
The total amount of plastic waste circulating in the world’s oceans is projected to be 150 million tons by 2025. Marine plastic waste ranges in size from floating barrels, plastic bottles and plastic sheets down to sub-microscopic particles and fibers.
Chemicals in plastics have been associated with a range of medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, developmental defects, neurologic and behavioral conditions, low birth weight, metabolic syndrome and obesity, and impact on reproductive health in both females and males. Many of these effects can be attributed to endocrine disrupting mechanisms of molecules found in plastics.
As parents and clinicians, a first step we could take is to encourage families to do a mini-survey of plastics in our kitchens. Are there old plastic food containers that could be replaced with glass or stainless steel? Are there one-use plastics that might be reduced? Can people agree to stop heating food in plastic containers? Are there food containers in lunch boxes for school or work that could be upgraded to healthier options? What other ways can the family think of to reduce plastics exposure? Perhaps there are small steps that could be taken at school or at work to educate others about reducing plastic use outside the home as well.
Simply starting with curiosity and narrowing down to one or two simple action steps is an approach that can involve the whole family and start a cycle of healthy changes. Our actions matter, and we all share responsibility to model this for the next generation.
On this Earth Day, if each of us takes a small step in a healthier direction, the cumulative effect has the potential to be truly significant.
References:
UNESCO. Facts and Figures on Marine Pollution.
Ghassabian A, Trasande L. Disruption in thyroid signaling pathway: a mechanism for the effect of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on child neurodevelopment. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2018; 9: 204.
Bellanger M, Demeneix B, Grandjean P, Zoeller RT, Trasande L. Neurobehavioral deficits, diseases, and associated costs of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the European Union. J Clin Endocrinol Metab2015; 100: 1256–66.
Kahn, Philippat, Nakayama, Slama. Transande. Endocrine disrupting chemicals: implications for human health.
Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020 August ; 8(8): 703–718. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(20)30129-7.