Plastic Chemicals - A Toxic Relationship and How We Can Start Fixing It

In this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into plastic chemicals and their impacts on human and environmental health. You’ll learn why it’s not such a great idea to put plastic containers into your dishwasher, and why fatty food is especially prone to absorbing chemicals from food packaging. We’re also discussing a common and mostly misunderstood mantra of toxicology, the claim that it’s always the dose that makes the poison. Well, it turns out, that that’s not always true. We’re looking at how some chemicals in plastics can hack our hormone systems, how the political regulation of chemicals is not sufficient, and what we can do about it. In short, we’re taking a look at our toxic relationship with plastics and chemicals, why it affects some people more thana others, and how we can start fixing it. My guests are Martin Wagner, Professor of Biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, and Jane Muncke,  Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer at the Food Packaging Forum. We met on the sidelines of the plastics treaty negotiations in Geneva a month ago. Martin Wagner: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/martin.wagner Jane Muncke: https://foodpackagingforum.org/about-us/office/jane-muncke PlastChem report: https://plastchem-project.org/ The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01447-3/abstract The Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty: https://ikhapp.org/scientist-about-us/