Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan of the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS) gave the keynote presentation at the SafePlastChem conference, organized by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) and held in Monte Verità, Switzerland, from January 26-29, 2026.
More than 16,000 chemicals are used as additives or processing aids in the manufacture of plastics, and the leaching of these chemicals into the environment (and subsequent human exposure) has become a growing public health concern. The conference focused on assessing current knowledge of plastic-associated chemicals, including their environmental fate, human health risks, technological challenges, control strategies, and opportunities for industrial innovation and best practices. The conference brought together more than 60 researchers working across disciplines ranging from industrial ecology to plastic waste recycling.
Dr. Kannan’s keynote presentation, titled “An analysis of plastic chemicals in air, dust, and select products in the indoor environment,” provided a comprehensive overview of human exposure to plastic chemicals from indoor sources and consumer products.
Dr. Kannan’s research program at the Wadsworth Center is dedicated to measuring human exposure to chemicals present in plastics and other environmental sources. His laboratory is among a small number worldwide with extensive data on human exposure to plastic-associated chemicals, a distinction that led to his invitation as a keynote speaker. Chemicals incorporated into plastics can leach over time, contaminating food, indoor air, and household dust. Inhalation of indoor air and ingestion of dust represent important exposure pathways for many of these endocrine-disrupting compounds. In addition to concerns surrounding microplastics as particulate matter, chemicals added to plastics are increasingly recognized as emerging public health risks. Research in this field is expected to expand significantly over the coming decade.