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  • RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

Enormous inventory of plastic chemicals could shape safer future use

If plastics are to be made more sustainable, they must first be made safer in terms of the chemicals they contain and release. A comprehensive inventory of more than 16,000 known plastic chemicals, including particularly problematic ones, supports scientists and stakeholders in understanding and improving the safety of plastics.
This is a summary of: Monclús, L. et al. Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics. Nature 643, 349–355 (2025).

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02116-6

‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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