Plastics in healthcare: Navigating the balance among access, health, and sustainability

Overview:

In August 2025, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee will reconvene to continue negotiations around an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (INC-5.2). Among the key areas under negotiation are the treaty’s approach to health and whether and how the precautionary principle and scientific evidence should guide decision-making and implementation. One specific paradox the treaty could address is that despite the risks to health posed by the risks of plastics to health and the environment, healthcare has increasingly become reliant on plastics in the design, manufacture, and packaging of health products. Thus, the plastics treaty must recognize the importance of ensuring equitable access to safe, effective, and quality-assured health products while also mitigating potential risks and harms from plastics. However, for successful treaty implementation, we will need to chart a research agenda; evidence-to-decision frameworks to support policy and regulatory action; and governance processes that engage the multiple and diverse interest holders. In this workshop, hosted by the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care, we bring together WHO leadership and international experts to introduce useful frameworks and their application.

Workshop Outline:

This workshop is hosted in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector and the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care at the University of Toronto. The Director of the WHO Health Products Policy and Standards division, Mr. Deusdedit Mubangizi, will provide opening remarks underscoring the need for balancing access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products with protection from risks of harms from plastics.

To resolve uncertainty around the problem of plastic pollution and to prepare for treaty implementation, it is important to understand what scientific evidence is available and whether and how it might inform decisions on interventions to mitigate or prevent the multiple harms of plastic production, use, and pollution. Dr. Quinn Grundy, Associate Professor and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector at the University of Toronto will present the findings from a recent global evidence mapping review, which described and critically analyzed how plastics and their ingredients have been studied in the context of health products and their packaging.

However, even when evidence is available, policy and regulatory frameworks for making decisions and recommendations on interventions to mitigate or prevent exposures that may be harmful to human and environmental health tend to narrowly focus on exposure and some health-related data related to risks. Typically, such frameworks do not consider other factors, including need, health equity, and distribution of benefits and costs. Dr. Nicholas Chartres, Senior Research Fellow at The University of Sydney, will present an application of the Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health that proposes a structured and transparent approach for incorporating a range of scientific information and factors for more equitable and health-protective decision-making.

Mitigating the environmental and health harms of plastic products requires a multi-stakeholder effort, particularly around exploring alternatives to single-use plastics in products used in clinical care. Dr. Jeremy Greene, Professor at Johns Hopkins University will present the PASS-UP model (Pragmatic Approach to Streamlining Single-Use Plastics in Healthcare), which outlines a process that engages diverse stakeholders including policymakers, clinicians, activists, and engineers/designers, to mitigate the harms of single-use plastic health products in healthcare settings. Developed through an international, multidisciplinary research project to understand what it would take transform health care to a circular economy of reuse instead of a linear economy of waste and discard?

The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A hosted by Dr. Fiona Miller, Professor and Director of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care.

*Once registered attendees can find the Zoom link in their inbox or on the online event page.