One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first campaign promises during his failed presidential bid was to curb plastic pollution, partly because of the dangers of microplastics to human health. Fast forward several months, and Kennedy is now Health and Human Services Secretary, charged with making America healthy again, but has not yet used his new power to address the microplastics problem.
Although microplastics have been on the radar of environmental advocates such as Kennedy for decades, biomedical research is relatively new on how these ubiquitous nanoparticles from degrading plastics affect human health. So far, microplastics have been linked to several health problems, ranging from infertility to cancer to antibiotic resistance, and are becoming a new source of urgent concern for public health researchers.
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According to the most recent statistics published by the Environmental Protection Agency, 35.7 million tons of plastic waste was generated in the United States alone in 2018. That’s compared to 25.6 million tons in 2000 and 6.8 million tons in 1980. Experts say current levels of plastic pollution are expected to double by 2060.
Tracey Woodruff, Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Washington Examiner that eliminating toxic chemicals, including microplastics, is the most sensible portion of the MAHA movement, which is often considered fringe in other areas of policy, like vaccine skepticism.
“People want the government to deal with toxic chemicals in their lives,” said Woodruff. “They want them to regulate. They want them to take it out. The government has not been as responsive as they should have been to this.”
Most of Kennedy’s stated goals on curbing plastic as president would have come from his authority over the EPA, but there are several areas on the margins of microplastics policy that Kennedy could shape under the helm of HHS.
Microplastics and health risks
Microplastics are technically defined as any plastic particle less than 5 millimeters or approximately the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen.
Although some products, particularly cosmetics, intentionally create microplastics, most microplastics in the environment come from so-called “secondary microplastics,” or fragments that degrade from larger plastic products, such as textiles, tires, and packaging.
Scientists are increasingly concerned about how the ubiquity of microplastics is harming human health. The particles mimic human hormones and disrupt bodily systems.
“There are microplastics found in every part of the body,” says Woodruff, whose research is at the forefront of understanding this problem.
Woodruff was one of the lead authors of a 2023 microplastics policy review commissioned by the California legislature.
She and her colleagues found high-quality evidence that microplastics have an adverse effect on sperm quality as well as “moderate” evidence it harms women’s egg quality and reproductive hormones.
Woodruff’s study also found moderate evidence that microplastics cause chronic lung and digestive tract inflammation and are linked to lung and colon cancers.
Another study, published by researchers at the University of New Mexico in February, found that deceased patients diagnosed with dementia had up to 10 times more microplastics in their brains than those without the cognitive condition.
Campaign Kennedy or Secretary Kennedy
In September 2023, Kennedy used the issue of plastic pollution to challenge former President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. He accused his opponent of caving to industrial interests when given the opportunity to limit petroleum production, which would, in turn, reduce plastic waste.
Kennedy’s 10-point plan on reducing plastic pollution from 2023 included commissioning “a major national study to evaluate all sources of plastic waste,” citing synthetic textiles and tires as “the largest sources of plastic microfibers.”
Later in the campaign, in June 2024, the then-independent Kennedy said on X that it was “time to take the problem of microplastics in our food, water, and environment seriously.”
With Kennedy’s long career as an environmental lawyer, his interest in thwarting plastic pollution is unsurprising.
Shortly after former President Barack Obama won in 2008 against the late John McCain, Kennedy was reportedly considered for the role of EPA administrator because of his track record as an environmental lawyer and advocate of clean water in the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.
Kennedy has long cited this work on the Hudson as the catalyst for entering the public health space since toxic chemicals that harm wildlife populations have similar effects on humans.
But since joining the Trump campaign in 2024, Kennedy has not addressed the issue of plastic pollution in interviews or social media posts. Microplastics were also not mentioned at all during his nearly six-hour Senate confirmation hearings before the finance and health committees.
HHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
MAHA versus “Drill, baby, drill”
Microplastics may have taken a back seat in MAHA priorities because of conflicts with another one of Trump’s favorite policy catchphrases: “Drill, baby, drill.”
In November, the Biden EPA published a national strategy for reducing plastic pollution, including decreasing waste generation. However, the strategy conflicts with Trump’s team’s general deregulation goals.
Last month, Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rolling back of 31 actions to “unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission.”
Woodruff, a senior scientist at EPA for 13 years before becoming faculty at UCSF, says the agency “is not on track” to help curb the microplastic problem.
“Obviously, this administration has said they want to convert everything to fossil fuel, and the reality is that fossil fuel is the driver of plastics because that’s what they use to make plastics,” said Woodruff. “They’ve been building out on fracking, and plastics is their new market.”
Last month, the EPA and the Agriculture Department also announced that they were streamlining the interpretation of protected waterways under the Clean Water Act, which some activist groups fear will decimate environmental protections.
When asked about microplastics and their effects on human health, an EPA spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the agency does not regulate microplastics under the Safe Drinking Water Act and does not currently have recommendations for microplastics in water quality criteria under the Clean Water Act.
FDA and plastics in food packaging
Although EPA and USDA might control plastics as an environmental toxin, Woodruff says that the Food and Drug Administration under HHS could have the biggest effect in regulating microplastics entering the food supply through packaging rules.
In October, Biden’s FDA dismissed a 2022 petition to ban phthalates, a particular type of plastic material, from food packaging. Woodruff says the leadership of Kennedy and the new FDA Commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, could open an opportunity to review more up-to-date information.
Kennedy has also recently taken aim at eliminating a loophole that allows food corporations to self-affirm their ingredients are safe without providing data to the agency under the designation “generally recognized as safe.”
GRAS rules, Kennedy said last month, have allowed “new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or to the public.”
Kennedy said that eliminating the GRAS loophole “will provide transparency to consumers” and “help get our nation’s food supply back on track.”
Federal regulations on GRAS apply to food packaging and ingredients, creating an opportunity for Kennedy to reduce microplastic exposure in the food supply.
But economic goals of the administration could again indirectly hinder the goal of reducing exposure to microplastics.
Trump’s 25% increased tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have already inspired the food industry, including the Coca-Cola Company, to increase their use of plastic packaging in an effort to save costs.
Research funding for environmental toxins
Kennedy could also affect the long-term trajectory of plastics policy by pressuring Congress for more financial resources to study the health effects of microplastic exposures, hoping to inform policy in different departments down the line.
The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences received only $914 million in fiscal 2023 and did not receive an increase from Congress for fiscal 2024. That’s less than 2% of the $49.2 billion operating budget for the entire National Institutes of Health in 2023.
“I think that is one of the reasons why we do not know enough about how toxic chemical exposures are happening in the population and affecting all these health outcomes, including fertility, that people are concerned about,” said Woodruff, citing the small amount of NIH funding directed toward environmental factors.
Woodruff also stressed the need to boost support for the “chronically underfunded” National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Health Information Survey, which each collect critical information on population health status and environmental toxin exposures.
Both surveys are managed by the National Center for Health Statistics under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Going in the opposite direction?
Expanding these efforts could be complicated by Kennedy’s fundamental changes to HHS structures, including an additional reduction of 10,000 employees across the department.
Kennedy announced in March that the CDC would lose 2,400 permanent employees under the directive of “returning to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks.” NIH will also lose 1,200 employees in human resources, procurement, and communications, according to the announcement.
This is on top of the slashing of extant research grants at universities nationwide. Last month, nearly 1,500 researchers from various disciplines at institutions across the country published an open letter in the New York Times in fear that the “nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated” by the Trump administration.
Inter-department cooperation
Kennedy could also have an indirect hand in policymaking at other departments, even if his direct authority is limited.
Del Bigtree, CEO of the advocacy group MAHA Action, told the Washington Examiner during an event on the pesticide glyphosate that Kennedy could influence policymaking outside of direct HHS authority through the MAHA Commission, a partnership of several agencies created by executive order in February to tackle the chronic disease epidemic.
Zeldin for EPA, Brooke Rollins for USDA, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner are included among the sub-agencies within HHS responsible for developing a comprehensive strategy by August to reduce chronic disease rates among children.
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MAHA Action did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the issue of microplastics specifically, but Bigtree said that, in the context of restricting glyphosate use, the commission could allow Kennedy to persuade other cabinet officials about key MAHA positions.
“Thanks to President Trump and his executive order for the MAHA Commission, all of these heads of health departments that affect our lives are going to be sitting down together on, I think, at least on a monthly basis and discussing how they’re all going to work on making America healthy again,” said Bigtree.
