Overview

• The Lancet’s Health Policy review details how plastic production, use and disposal harm human health through air emissions, toxic chemicals and microplastic exposures.
• The new Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics will track indicators across production, exposures, health impacts and interventions with its first report due in mid-2026.
• Delegates from more than 175 countries arrive in Geneva from August 5–14 for the treaty’s final negotiations, facing a deep divide over proposed limits on plastic production.
• Without new controls, global plastic output is set to nearly triple by 2060, driving an estimated $1.5 trillion in annual health-related costs and worsening environmental damage.
• Experts warn that a lack of transparency on over 16,000 plastic chemicals and open burning of 57 percent of waste in low- and middle-income countries compound the crisis’s health risks.