Trends in Academic Strength and Diversity Continue with Class of ’27 Plastics Study Results Are Concerning

Professor of Biology Philip Landrigan, M.D., ’63 (right) director of the Program on Global Public Health and the Common Good and the Boston College Global Observatory on Planetary Health, is the lead author of a groundbreaking new report about the far-reaching health hazards of plastics manufacturing and pollution across the entire product life cycle.

Published in the journal Annals of Global Public Health, the study was undertaken by an international group of scientists led by the Observatory and partners at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation and the Centre Scientifique de Monaco.

Landrigan spoke with Chronicle staff writer Ed Hayward about the unprecedented scope of the study, the first to examine the economic, health, environmental, and social costs associated with plastics from the first stages of fabrication to the many end states of the material that is seemingly everywhere—in homes and businesses, buried in landfills, scattered along roadsides, amassing in oceans and waterways, and infiltrating the bodies of humans and animals.

Countless studies have examined plastic pollution and health risks. What is different about this analysis?

Landrigan: This is the first analysis to look at hazards to human health caused by plastics across their entire life cycle—cradle to grave—beginning with extraction of the coal, oil, and gas from which nearly all plastics are made, through production and use, and on to the point where plastic wastes are thrown into landfills, dumped into the ocean, or shipped overseas.

Previous studies have looked at pieces of the plastic life cycle. They have looked at the problem from many different perspectives based on expertise in air pollution, or the oceans, or fracking, or medicine. But until now, nobody has looked at the entire problem all at once. That is what is different about our approach…that and the fact that we focused very specifically on plastics’ impacts on human health.

Why did you do this study at this time?

Landrigan: We are very concerned about the impacts for human and planetary health of massive, almost exponential recent increases in plastic production and plastic waste. Eight billion tons of plastic have been produced since 1950, more than half of it in the last 20 years, and production is on track to treble by 2050. This plastic contains thousands of toxic and cancer-causing chemicals that can leach out of the plastic at every stage. And because plastic does not break down in the environment and less than 10 percent is recycled, an estimated six billion tons of chemical-laden plastic waste now contaminate the Earth’s environment. This is not sustainable.

What will it take to, as the report recommends, end plastics pollution by 2040?

Landrigan: A group of global leaders, the High Ambition Coalition, established that target. We thought it was a reasonable goal and we incorporated it into our report. Clearly, we are not going to live without plastic products. Many are essential. But we have to ensure that the plastic we do use is safely produced and properly disposed. Currently, plastic recycling is a failure. Only 10 percent of all plastic is recycled, compared to 75 percent of paper. Not because people don’t want to recycle—but once plastic gets to a sorting facility, most items contain too many toxic chemicals to be safely recycled. As a result, chemical-laden plastic waste is shipped around the world to end up in some of the world’s poorest countries. It ends up in landfills or it is burned, often harming communities that host those facilities.

We try to make a very clear distinction in this report between essential uses of plastic and non-essential uses. A lot of plastic is not essential, particularly single-use plastic like product wrapping. That’s not accidental. The fossil fuel industry sees its markets for gasoline and other fuels declining as the world goes green and they are therefore diverting increasing amounts of coal, oil, and gas into plastic manufacture and creating new markets for plastic. The goal of the Global Plastics Treaty is to put a brake on this runaway production while at the same time preserving essential uses of plastic.

This report intends to drive change at a global scale. What makes you confident that can be done?

Landrigan: I am an optimist. I have learned from long experience that the first step in bringing about change is to assemble the facts. That is what we have done in this report. Once data have been collected showing that a material like plastic is causing great harm to human health and the Earth’s environment, it is harder for people to say there is no problem. That won’t bring about change overnight, but facts are stubborn things and they don’t go away. Given time, I suspect that the Global Plastic Treaty will be established, checks and balances will be placed on plastic production, and that the currently unrestrained accumulation of plastic waste will slow. We now have an Ocean Treaty, and we have the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so things are moving in the right direction. As a proud Boston College graduate and member of the Boston College faculty, I feel it’s my responsibility to do my bit to live the Jesuit mission to protect our Common Home, to push for change, and to try to advance the Common Good.

To read the full Q&A, which includes links to the study on plastics and other information, go to bit.ly/landrigan-plastics-report as well as 79 countries. Nine percent of the admitted class are international students and 12 percent are the first in their family to attend college.

In total, after receiving 36,525 applications, the University extended 5,511 offers of admission—a rate of 15 percent, the lowest in BC history and part of a trend that has emerged the past several years.

Only six years ago, the admit rate for the Class of 2021 (with 28,454 applications) was 32 percent; four years ago, the rate was 27 percent for the Class of 2023 (35,500 applications). Last year saw the University receive a record 40,477 applications for the Class of 2026, for which it admitted 17 percent. This year’s admit rate of 15 percent for the Class of 2027 places Boston College among the nation’s most selective universities.

“The Admission staff is honored to have selected this incoming class from an impressive group of more than 36,000 candidates,” said Director of Undergraduate Admission Grant Gosselin. “These students’ intellectual inquiry, the time and care they’ve committed to their communities, and the personal stories they have shared with us are both impressive and inspiring. We look forward to the impact they will have on the Heights and in the world at large.”

Admission hosted two welcome events for Early Decision students in February and earlier this month, said Gosselin, and will hold two Admitted Eagle Day programs next month. The office also will organize a number of in-person programs on campus and throughout the country, as well as virtual programming, in April.

“In the weeks ahead, we look forward to engaging with our admitted students as they finalize their college decisions,” said Gosselin. “While a little more than half the class has already enrolled via Early Decision, those admitted via Regular Decision will benefit from a robust array of admitted student programming to introduce them to this dynamic community and the many opportunities it provides.”