Scientists revealed the chemicals used to make plastics more flexible play a role in more than 350,000 deaths due to heart disease each year, research that could be central to the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
The new study, published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, found one phthalate, DEHP, contributed to 13 percent of all deaths from cardiovascular disease in adults ages 55 to 64 in 2018. The research was led by New York University researchers and was funded by a joint grant from the National Institutes of Health and Beyond Petrochemicals, the initiative funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg to move away from plastics.
“The findings underscore the need for urgent global and local regulatory interventions” to minimize DEHP exposure, the study’s authors wrote.
DEHP, or di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, is one of the most widely used phthalates used to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, and in food packaging.
