IN time for the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding Global Plastics Treaty, a team of researchers put together 'PlastChem: State of the Science on Plastic Chemicals,' a comprehensive report on chemicals used and found in plastics. About 4,200 of the 16,000 chemicals identified were flagged as 'chemicals of concern' due to toxicity, persistence, bioaccumulation and/or mobility.

The number could be much higher, though, as the scientists found that hazard information for two-thirds of the chemicals was incomplete. The team identified 161 plastic chemicals — about 1 percent of the total — that could be considered 'not hazardous.' However, 'none of them has been fully assessed for all relevant hazard properties.'