Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

As governments and stakeholders gather in Geneva for the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 5.2), a new report to be published in The Lancet will offer an up-to-date assessment of the links between health and plastic pollution across the full life cycle of plastics, and announces the launch of an independent, health-focused global monitoring system on plastics: The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics.

This event, hosted by the new Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, and supported by the Forum on Trade, Environment, & SDGs (TESS), brought together a regionally diverse panel of INC members and experts to:

• canvass the evidence to date on the impacts of plastic pollution on human health,
• explore opportunities to address these impacts in the future international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution to ensure the protection of human health and the environment, and
• highlight the contribution that the new Lancet Countdown on Plastics and Health can make as an independent data source to inform decision-making at all levels for the benefit of public health.