For Thousands of Common Chemicals, There Is ‘No Safe Level,’ Says Report

Plastics, pesticides and forever chemicals are exposing billions of people around the world to pernicious and dangerous health effects, a new report has found.

In the report published Monday, scientists from the Endocrine Society and the International Pollutants Elimination Network criticized the way regulators determine the toxicity level of chemicals — and suggested that for a staggering array of common compounds, no dose may be safe.

This is a problem scientists connect to the rising production from the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries.

“There is good reason to suspect that increasing chemical and plastic production and use are related to the growing incidence of endocrine- associated disorders over the past 20 years,” the report found.

The authors noted that plastic sales had increased thirty-fold since 1970 — and that annual production had gone up by a factor of nine. That’s an increase that had corresponded with a dramatic rise in diseases such as obesity, as well as similarly stark falls in male fertility.