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Scientists warn of further plastics pollution – international collaboration documents contamination and counter-measures
Press Release
Heidelberg, 5 August 2025
New Lancet Countdown on Plastics and Health
Scientists warn of further plastics pollution – international collaboration documents contamination and counter-measures
Plastic pollution and contamination constitute a growing danger for the health of human beings, wildlife, and the Earth’s ecosystem: scientific experts warn of this in a recent article in the journal The Lancet. On Monday, 4 August 2025, in Geneva (Switzerland), the scientists – including the epidemiologist, mathematician and statistician Prof. Dr Joacim Rocklöv from Heidelberg University – also announced the founding of the new “Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics”. The international research collaboration is to document the global contamination with plastic waste, its consequences for health, and measures to counteract it.
An estimated eight billion tons of plastic waste is meanwhile contaminating the planet, according to the scientists. At the same time, plastic production continues to rise – with serious consequences. It is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire country of Brazil. Micro and nano-particles along with numerous plastic chemicals are found even in remote corners of the Earth, as in the bodies of marine and terrestrial life and also of humans. In the Lancet report, the scientists show how this plastic pollution leads to diseases and deaths from early childhood to old age and document the disproportionate impacts on many vulnerable population groups. At the same time, the experts point to the high economic costs arising from it and to significant gaps in information: 75 percent of plastic chemicals have never been tested for safety.
In order to discuss measures to take against the further spread of plastics, representatives of the United Nations’ (UN) member states are meeting from 5 to 14 August 2025 in Geneva. The goal of the UN is a global agreement to combat plastic pollution. By presenting the “Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics”, the experts involved from the fields of global health, environmental sciences, chemistry, and politics want to support these negotiations. “We show how serious the health impacts of plastic pollution and contamination already are – and what consequences threaten if decisive action is not taken,” underlines Prof. Rocklöv, Co-Chair of the Countdown. “We also take a wider perspective and look at the convergence of plastic pollution with other global threats to health, such as mosquito-borne diseases and antimicrobial resistance,” states Dr Marina Treskova, an eco-epidemiologist from Heidelberg University and Co-Lead of the working group on health impacts of the Countdown.
For the first “Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics” report, the scientists will identify scientifically sound and regionally representative indicators for the four areas: plastic production, exposure to plastics, health-related outcomes, as well as interventions and engagement, and regularly update and report on them. “We will supply independent data based on which decisions can be taken to promote public health,” says Prof. Rocklöv.
The founding of the “Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics” is receiving significant support from Heidelberg University and Boston College (USA), the Centre Scientifique de Monaco, and the Minderoo Foundation in Australia. The new research collaboration is analogous to the activities of the “Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change” report. It involves about 300 scientists documenting the health impacts of climate change.
Joacim Rocklöv holds an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at Heidelberg University and is conducting research in a range of projects at both the university and Heidelberg University Hospital, focusing on the impacts of climate and environmental changes on public health. For that purpose, he leads the Heidelberg Planetary Health Hub (Hei-Planet), which is based at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing. He is one of the two coordinators of the European “Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change” report and one of the two chairs of the new “Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics”.
Marina Treskova is a junior research group leader and co-principal investigator of a flagship project in the Heidelberg Planetary Health Hub at Heidelberg University. Prof. Rocklöv and Dr Treskova are leading the EU funded consortium “Community-based engagement and interventions to stem the tide of antimicrobial resistance spread in the aquatic environments catalysed by climate change and plastic pollution interactions” (TULIP), which tackles the interactions between antimicrobial resistance and plastics.
Prof. Dr Joacim Rocklöv
Heidelberg Institut of Global Health
joacim.rockloev@uni-heidelberg.de
Dr Marina Treskova
Heidelberg Institut of Global Health
marina.treskova@uni-heidelberg.de
P.J. Landrigan, S. Dunlop, M. Treskova, H. Raps, C. Symeonides, J. Muncke, J. Rocklöv et al: The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics, The Lancet (3 August 2025), DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01447-3
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