Toxic Substances in Plastics, Micro- and Nanoplastics: Utilizing ATSDR's Plastics-Related Toxicological Profile Tool and Mixtures Framework for Human Health Risk Assessment
Abstract
The prevalence of plastics in the environment raises concerns about their complex and poorly understood effects on human health. Research continues to uncover more sources of exposure and wider ranges of plastics within the body. Adverse health effects have been observed in animals, but their relevance to humans remains unclear. To address the growing need for reliable toxicity assessment resources and tools to aid in the synthesis of findings and the identification of data gaps and needs, we have developed a data visualization tool to provide streamlined access to the evaluated data on the chemical impacts of plastics on human health. The Plastics-Related Toxicology Profiles Tool uses Tableau Public to organize the extracted chemical-specific information from ATSDR Toxicological Profiles, the United Nations Environmental Program's 2023 Chemicals in Plastics Technical Report, and a literature review of relevant research in Google Scholar and PubMed. The tool organizes extracted data from 98 ATSDR Toxicological Profiles representing over 476 substances related to plastics production in 16 tabulated health outcome categories associated with plastics exposure. The chemicals are organized into four categories based on their role in plastics manufacturing. The top four health endpoints impacted by all listed substance profiles are respiratory, neurologic, hepatic, and developmental effects. More than 30% of the substance profiles affected these systems as well as other non-cancer…
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