One tool for brands and manufacturers is the International Chemical Secretariat’s “SIN List”(25) of substances likely to be banned in the future, and safer alternative chemicals. Writing in an industry newsletter, David Constable, science director at the Green Chemistry Institute of the American Chemical Society, warned,(26) “if we continue to use the types of plastics that are currently in use, we will continue to be manufacturing a very large volume of very hazardous chemicals, some portion of which will find its way into the environment and into humans.”

Problem Replacements: Alternatives can have similar properties to the hazardous chemicals they’ve replaced. The widely-used plastic additive BPA, which has been found in 93 percent of the U.S. population, has been associated with chronic human health conditions(27) including diabetes, obesity, and infertility.(28) But a 2018 study(29) reported that, in animal experiments, some BPA alternatives showed “similar biological effects” to BPA.