Microplastic pollution will be a target of the Make America Healthy Again agenda, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr has announced.
In a video posted to X, Secretary Kennedy said that microplastic pollution is a significant threat to human health and must be addressed.
“Microplastics are everywhere — in our water, our soil, our food, even our organs,” Kennedy wrote.
“This isn’t just pollution — it’s a market failure. Corporations aren’t poisoning us out of malice, but out of economic necessity. That has to change.
“The Trump administration will fix the incentives and stop this toxic cycle. We’ll reward companies that innovate with safe, sustainable packaging — and regulate the chemicals that don’t belong anywhere near our food.”
In a 90-second video to accompany the post, Kennedy speaks about recent research showing the extent of microplastic pollution, including a study that showed microplastic contamination of 99% of seafood samples.
He also speaks about the extent of contamination of human organs, from the brain to the colon, and the fact that the health effects of microplastic exposure are still little understood. Already, though, microplastics are clearly linked to a wide range of chronic health conditions, including dementia and cancer.
More than nine billion tons of plastic are estimated to have been produced between 1950 and 2017, with over half of that total having been produced since 2004.
The vast majority of plastic ends up in the environment in one form or another, where it breaks down, through weathering, exposure to UV light and organisms of all kinds, into smaller and smaller pieces—microplastics and then nanoplastics.
If you want to learn more about microplastics, read our detailed primer, “The Microplastic Menace,” in order to understand the threat they pose, the sources of exposure and how to protect yourself and your loved ones against them.