Overview

Plastics might contain thousands of chemicals, many of which remain unregulated and poorly understood. Recent studies, including the PlastChem project ↗, reveal over 16,000 chemicals in plastic materials, with only 6% currently regulated. Notably, around 4,200 chemicals are known to be hazardous, while hazard data is entirely missing for more than 10,000 chemicals. This project responds to the urgent need for knowledge and regulation, as highlighted by Norway’s national plastics strategies ↗ and aligns with the goals of the upcoming UN plastics treaty ↗.

The widespread human exposure to chemicals leaching from plastics, such as phthalates and bisphenols, has been well-documented in biomonitoring studies across Europe, for example, in the Aligned studies ↗ conducted under the HBM4EU ↗ and will be further studied in PARC.

The project aims to identify the most hazardous chemicals leaching from commonly used plastic products, focusing on plastic additives and non-intentionally added residues. It prioritises products with high usage or data gaps. Leachate mixtures from these items will undergo hazard screening using a tiered approach based on New Approach Methodologies (NAMs ↗), many of which are being developed under PARC.

The methods will assess a wide range of toxicity endpoints such as cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, endocrine disruption, immunotoxicity, and neurodevelopmental toxicity, using both human and environmental test models.

The project will rank leachates based on predicted and observed toxic effects. It will then identify and test individual chemicals using commercial standards, particularly focusing on those found in high volumes, as listed in the ECHA PLASI project ↗. This initiative contributes to closing data gaps, supporting regulation, and protecting both environmental and human health from hazardous substances in plastics.

Achievements & Results

A kick-off meeting was held in May 2025 and the list of possible plastic products to be tested was drafted. The method to prepare leachates was agreed and the next step is to agree on the tiered testing methods.

Policy relevance

If hazardous chemicals are identified in the plastics the Norwegian government has indicated an interest to propose regulatory action within REACH, in close cooperation with other member states.

The Norwegian government is also actively supporting to include the topic of chemicals in plastic in the ongoing negotiations on the UN plastic treaty.