GCSE INNOVATION LABS · GLOBAL
Plastics &
Human Health
Lab
Informing global policy and treaty negotiations with science that links plastic pollution to human health risks across environmental systems.
SENIOR FELLOW LEADS
Mary Ellen Ternes
Jeffrey Seay
Tracy Hester
EXPOSURE PATHWAYS
Inhalation
Ingestion
Dermal Contact
LAB OVERVIEW
Closing the Gap Between
Pollution and Policy
Microplastics and nanoplastics are now present across air, soil, water, food systems, and the human body — yet critical uncertainties remain around exposure pathways and health impacts.
This lab works to close these gaps while ensuring emerging science informs policy, regulation, and global governance efforts. Through international research collaborations, the lab identifies priority knowledge gaps and advances a One Health framework that links environmental contamination to human exposure.
Core Knowledge Gaps Being Addressed
Dose-response relationships between micro/nanoplastic exposure and human health outcomes
Cross-media contamination pathways — from environment to food chain to human body
Cumulative and combined effects of plastic pollutants with other environmental stressors
Regulatory thresholds and science-informed standards for global governance
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
A One Health Framework
The lab advances a One Health approach — recognizing that human health, animal health, and environmental health are inseparably linked, and that plastic contamination must be studied across this entire system.
Inhalation
Airborne micro and nanoplastics entering respiratory systems across indoor and outdoor environments.
Ingestion
Plastics entering the body through contaminated food, water, and beverage systems globally.
Dermal Contact
Skin-level exposure through plastic-containing consumer products, textiles, and materials.
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
Shaping the Global
Plastics Treaty
GCSE plays an active role in the UNEP Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process — contributing scientific insight to the development of a global legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
GCSE ROLE
UNEP Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC)
Contributing peer-reviewed science to negotiations for a legally binding global instrument to end plastic pollution — bridging the gap between research evidence and international policy development.
01
Scientific Evidence Contribution
Translating lab findings into policy-relevant briefs and testimony for INC negotiating sessions worldwide.
02
Knowledge Gap Identification
Convening international research collaborations to define what we know, what we don't, and what regulators need to know.
03
Regulatory Science Support
Developing science-informed thresholds, standards, and frameworks that can be incorporated into enforceable global regulation.
COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS
Lab Partners
The lab brings together leading scientific, regulatory, and diplomatic institutions across four continents.
Research Institution
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
CNRS · France
Federal Agency
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. EPA
International Governance
United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP
Federal Agency
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA
Diplomatic Mission
French Embassy
Washington, D.C.
International coalition
5 Partner Institutions
GET INVOLVED
Interested in this lab or similar work?
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