Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a fund for research into the potential impact of plastic on human health.
No further assessment has been made. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds research for the protection of public health from environmental hazards and to understand the complex role of the environment on disease development.
The NIHR is funding research on microplastic toxicity in humans through the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, which is a partnership between Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency. This work will be reported in peer reviewed academic journals in due course.