The chemicals inside everyday plastic products, from food containers and coffee cups to children's toys, threaten human health on a vast scale, and almost none are controlled, according to a new report and film from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). The findings make the case for a world where the products we use every day are safe by design; today, they are not.

EJF's research assessed the chemicals used in plastics and found that 92.8% of those studied present a high risk to human health. These chemicals have been linked to cancer, infertility, heart disease and lower IQ in children, yet more than half, 54.2% of the high-risk chemicals identified, are regulated neither at the international level nor in any of the four places reviewed: the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the US state of California.

The human cost is matched by an economic one. Three of these chemicals alone are estimated to have cost the global economy US$1.5 trillion in a single year, through premature deaths, chronic illness and lost productivity. Children are especially vulnerable, with exposure linked to lower IQ, attention disorders, cancer and lifelong reproductive harm.

This is not a problem people can solve through their own choices. The chemicals are invisible, rarely labelled and present across thousands of ordinary products, which is why the responsibility to act sits with industry and governments, not with consumers.

“The plastic we live with every day is quietly poisoning us,” said Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation. “These chemicals are in our food, our homes and our children's bodies, and almost none of them are controlled. This is a public health emergency that the industry has known about for decades and chosen to ignore. A healthy environment is the foundation of every other right we have - and right now that foundation is being poisoned for profit.”

EJF is publishing the research to contribute to the evidence guiding the global response to plastic pollution. As governments negotiate the Global Plastics Treaty, the world's first international agreement to tackle plastic across its whole life cycle, the report shows why an ambitious deal must control the chemicals in plastic, not only the waste it becomes.

EJF is calling on governments to cooperate to achieve an ambitious and legally-binding plastics treaty which:

• Reduces plastic production, cutting the flood of unnecessary plastic at source rather than managing it after the fact and establish toxic-free reuse and reduction-enabling systems

• Bans or strictly controls dangerous groups of chemicals, starting with those already linked to cancer, infertility and harm to children, women, and other vulnerable groups

• Ensures transparency and traceability across the full life cycle of plastics, providing mechanisms for greater and more thorough assessment of the harms of plastics and their chemicals throughout the life cycle

• Centres the health of humans and the environment throughout the text of the treaty and its mechanisms

In recent rounds of negotiations, bad faith actors have tried to lower the ambition of the instrument, challenging the inclusion of plastic production reduction, chemicals regulations, health, and limiting the participation of observers. EJF calls on delegates to guarantee everyone the right to a life free from toxic exposure, with high-ambition leaders, particularly in the EU and the UK, holding firm for a strong treaty.

“We already have the answer within reach,” added Salisa Traipipitsiriwat, Senior Plastics Campaigner of the Environmental Justice Foundation, “Governments negotiating the Global Plastics Treaty can act now to cut plastic production and control the most dangerous chemicals at source. Protecting people from toxic harm is not a technical detail to be bargained away, it is the whole point. Everyone, everywhere, should be able to take for granted that the cup they drink from and the toy their child holds will not make them ill.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Read the report here, report summary here, and watch the film here.

The report, Poison Plastics: How Chemicals in Everyday Plastics Are Harming Your Health, is published on 30 September 2026. Figures cited: 92.8% of assessed plastic chemicals present a high risk to human health; 54.2% of the high-risk chemicals identified are unregulated internationally and across all four reviewed jurisdictions (EU, Japan, South Korea and California); three chemicals are estimated to cost the global economy US$1.5 trillion in a single year.

About EJF

Our work to secure environmental justice aims to protect our global climate, ocean, forests, wetlands, wildlife and defend the fundamental human right to a secure natural environment, recognising that all other rights are contingent on this. EJF works internationally to inform policy and drive systemic, durable reforms to protect our environment and defend human rights. We investigate and expose abuses and support environmental defenders, Indigenous peoples, communities, and independent journalists on the frontlines of environmental injustice. Our campaigns aim to secure peaceful, equitable and sustainable futures. Our investigators, researchers, filmmakers, and campaigners work with grassroots partners and environmental defenders across the globe. For more information or to organise an interview with one of our team, please contact media@ejfoundation.org.