Review of physical factors that control how plasticisers spread in the environment

What is it about?

Many plastics are 'softened' with small molecule additives. These can leach out and spread in the environment. The may accumulate in various organisms and cause adverse health and environmental effects. The dispersion of these materials depends on physical properties such as solubility and vapour pressure as well as interactions at interfaces with surface active molecules. The available data are presented and reviewed along with simple models.

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Why is it important?

Although some spread of plasticisers is detrimental, the ability of one material DEHP to prolong the viability of stored, donated blood is not understood at a molecular level. Assembling a body of data that describes how particular plasticisers interact with lipids and other materials is an important step towards selecting alternatives that may pose less long-term risks to health or the environment but still provide other advantageous properties.