After the wildfires in January last year, when entire suburbs of Los Angeles went up in flames, some homes appeared to have survived the blaze unscathed. They stood up unaffected, even the cushions were still on the couch inside. There was just a strange smell.
Over time, residents discovered that their ‘saved’ house was full of toxins. A father discovered that his daughter’s dress contained lead. A family’s car was left intact in the driveway, but the foam from the child seat tested positive for the toxic cyanide. After research from experts, another couple was advised to only enter their home wearing face masks, face masks and disposable overalls.
The example, to research The New York Timesit says Leaka book by the Belgian journalist Isabelle Vanhoutte. It is known that microplastics are now found everywhere – in raindrops, snow in Antarctica, even in the umbilical cord. Fewer people know that plastic also leaks harmful substances. Her book draws attention to this.
Next to Leak will also be released this fall Poisonwritten by Dutch toxicologist Jacob de Boer and political scientist Rolf Reynen. Poison In addition to plastic, it concerns many other poisons around us, for example in pesticides. The message of the two books is similar, namely: the supervision of chemicals is failing.
Sweater or sofa cover
Back to the example from Los Angeles, where the saved houses were affected by smoke damage from other burning houses. Everyday items can become toxic when heated. Benzene is produced from burning rubber, such as from a garden hose or car tire. Polyester, such as a sweater or sofa upholstery, can release carcinogenic gases.
Chemicals don’t just leak when exposed to heat. They come loose from car tires, are loosened by the acid of soft drinks, or by the fat of baby milk. They are released by rain, or simply through the air. In her book, Vanhoutte points out that typical chemical smell that lingers in a new car. The molecules of additives are not always tightly bound to the long carbon chains that make up plastic, she explains. They can easily escape from plastic due to their small size and mobility.
Plastic has increasingly entered our lives since the 1950s. It has obvious advantages: food keeps longer, cars become lighter and therefore more economical. But plastic is not just plastic. To give it the right properties, additives from the chemical industry are added. These make it stretchable, give it shine, reduce its flammability or protect it against sunlight or mold.
There is a big difference between the supervision of chemicals around us and supervision of the pharmaceutical industry
For example, the transparent medical tubes in hospitals are often made of PVC and plasticizers to make them flexible. Plasticizers are hormone disruptors and enter the blood of people (including babies) who are connected to equipment with tubes.
The problem with additives is how little we know about them, Vanhoutte writes. A lot is now known about PFAS (known from the unrest about sea foam and hobby chicken eggs), or bisphenol A. But we know “practically nothing” about a large number of such substances and certainly not about what a cocktail of different substances does to us. She points to research from 2024 commissioned by the Norwegian government. This showed that there could be up to sixteen thousand different chemical substances in plastic.
There is a big difference between the supervision of chemicals around us and the supervision of the pharmaceutical industry. Medicines are subjected to years of animal testing and clinical studies and must extensively prove their safety before they are released onto the market. “Additives can end up in hospitals, bedrooms and microwaves without detailed toxicological research,” Vanhoutte writes.
Yet Europe has the most extensive supervision in the world, called REACH. When production of a substance is high, producers must demonstrate that a substance is safe enough. But because companies have to demonstrate this themselves, important information is sometimes withheld by the business community. An interim evaluation report from REACH found that half of the safety files were incomplete.
If authorities consider a substance that is already on the market too dangerous, it can be banned. But the burden of proof then lies with the government – a complicated and years-long process. Moreover, manufacturers quickly bring a chemically similar alternative to the market. In Leak this is compared to the game Whack a mole: you knock away one substance, and three new ones appear.
Additives can end up in hospitals, bedrooms and microwave ovens without detailed toxicological testing
BPA is a well-known example of this. This makes plastic clear and heat-resistant, but is also a hormone disruptor. For example, it can mimic estrogen, which can affect the nervous system. When the substance was banned in baby bottles, chemically similar alternatives such as BPS, BPF, BPAF and BPZ quickly emerged. “In practice, the ‘BPA-free’ logo usually meant that BPA was simply replaced by a variant that later turned out to be just as toxic,” Vanhoutte writes.
Not only people can be affected by chemicals, nature can too. They can disrupt bacteria and fungi and damage the reproduction of worms. For example, mysterious waves of mortality among salmon in the American state of Washington appeared to be explained by rainwater runoff containing leftover car tires. It contained 6PPD, a stabilizer that protects tires from crumbling.
Yet it is important to ensure that the fear of toxic substances does not get away with us, emeritus professor of toxicology Martin van den Berg wrote in an opinion piece in 2024. NRC. The dose of a substance ultimately determines whether it is harmful or not. Living close to an agricultural area or working in a factory – that certainly poses risks. “But for the majority of the population, there is a good chance that daily exposure to chemicals in very low concentrations does not pose any health risks.”
Van de Berg points out that the risks of a poor lifestyle are still greater: excessive drinking, too much red meat, little exercise or smoking. Vanhoutte agrees, but believes that one evil does not necessarily exclude the other. “We know that many hormone disrupting substances are already effective in minimal quantities. Health problems such as diabetes, thyroid abnormalities and fertility problems are increasing. These are called lifestyle diseases, but more and more research shows that the plastic around us also plays a role in this. These are things to take very seriously.”
