THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF PLASTICS ON HUMAN HEALTH AND MARINE (Pages 07- 11) by D. Sundhari1 and E. Raja saravanan2 in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

Plastics continue to benefit society in innumerable ways, even though recent public focus on plastics has centered mostly on human health and marine concerns, including endocrine-disrupting properties and long-term pollution. The benefits of plastics are particularly apparent in medicine and public health. Plastics are versatile, cost-effective, require less energy to produce than alternative materials – such as metal or glass – and can be manufactured to have many different properties. In this concluding paper to the Theme Issue on Plastics, the Marine and Human Health, we synthesize current understanding of the benefits and concerns surrounding the use of plastics and look to future priorities, challenges and opportunities. It is evident that plastics bring many societal benefits and offer future technological and medical advances. Around 4 per cent of world oil production is used as a feedstock to make plastics and a similar amount is used as energy in the process. Yet over a third of current production is used to make items of packaging, which are then rapidly discarded. Given our declining reserves of fossil fuels, and finite capacity for disposal of waste to landfill, this linear use of hydrocarbons, via packaging and other short-lived applications of plastic, is simply not sustainable. There are solutions, including material reduction, design for end-of-life recyclability, increased recycling capacity, development of bio-based feedstock, strategies to reduce littering, the application of green chemistry life-cycle analyses and revised risk assessment approaches. Key Words: Plastics, harm, effects, health, marine,