As the war on plastics continues to rage, those who would like to see modern society completely rid of plastics altogether have found a new bogeyman: plastic-induced disease. Claiming that plastic is collectively costing us hundreds of billions of dollars in additional healthcare costs by making us sick is only the latest and a long series of scare tactics designed to turn the tide.

I admit to being skeptical of any so-called scientific studies that put forth correlation without causation. In terms of scientific proof, correlation alone offers nothing. Correlation is completely meaningless without any proof to back it up. Such is the case with so-called links between microplastics and human health.

A Study of Chemicals in Plastic

Note that the idea of plastic making us sick to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars annually is not made up. It comes from a recently published article from The Hill, an article discussing research out of New York suggesting that illness related to the chemicals in plastics are adding $250 billion to our collective healthcare bill every year.

I don’t buy it. First and foremost, if you read what the researchers say closely and in detail, you discover that they never prove their assertions. Their research only demonstrates a correlation between some of the chemicals used to manufacture plastic and the potential for those chemicals to cause disease. They also said that the chemicals could leach into food, water, etc. as the plastic breaks down.

But wait. Isn’t one of the chief arguments against plastic the fact that it literally takes hundreds of years to break down? Furthermore, researchers have not actually studied instances of plastic breaking down and leaching chemicals into soil, water, and such. They are merely surmising breakdown scenarios and then imagining what could happen if the targeted chemicals managed to escape.

There Is No Proof

I read of another study published by the Ecotoxicology and Public Health journal discussing the use of plastic cutting boards in the kitchen. Researchers there discovered that plastic cutting boards shed microplastics during normal use. That is a concern. But the researchers were careful to say that there still is not any proof that microplastics are harmful to human health in such small volumes.

The researchers went on to explain the difference between correlation and causation. And as previously explained in this post, correlation does not equal causation without proof. It is no coincidence that researchers dance around any actual claims of data proving that microplastics are harmful. They have no proof. They only have correlation, and correlation is easy to establish if you know how to do it.

A Hundred Years of Plastics

While the war on plastic continues, companies like Tennessee-based Seraphim Plastics continue doing what they do and providing a valuable service at the same time. Seraphim acquires post-industrial scrap plastic and converts it into a product that can be sold back to manufacturers. They are keeping industrial plastics out of landfills and incinerators.

The truth is that the world has been using plastic for a hundred years with no discernible negative health impacts as a result. While it may be true that some of the chemicals in plastic can be harmful to human health in high enough concentrations, it is also true that a person can die from drinking too much water too quickly.

There simply is no proof the plastics pose a major risk to human health. Pulling a figure like $250 billion out of thin air to say that plastics are costing us more in healthcare expenses is irresponsible and highly unscientific.