CIEL President Joins Expert Panel to Discuss Mounting Risks
Washington, DC—Carroll Muffett, President of the Center for International Environmental Law President will address a congressional briefing this afternoon on the intersecting human health risks of plastics, COVID-19, and the climate crisis. Muffett will appear as part of the House Oversight and Reform Environment Subcommittee’s briefing on “Plastic Production, Pollution and Waste in the Time of Covid-19: The Life-Threatening Impact of Single-Use Plastic on Human Health.” The panel features an array of experts and environmental justice advocates, including Yvette Arellano (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services); Monique Harden (Deep South Center for Environmental Justice); Former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck (Beyond Plastics); and Dr. Kimberly Terrell (Tulane Environmental Law Clinic).
Muffett’s testimony will present key findings from two comprehensive reports by CIEL and partners assessing how plastics affect human health and the global climate. The reports demonstrate that every stage of the plastic lifecycle—from wellhead to waste and beyond—exposes communities to an array of toxic risks, and accelerates the climate crisis. He will also detail how fossil fuel and plastic producers are seeking to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to roll back regulations and increase plastic production and use.
Muffett calls for a comprehensive change in how the global community deals with plastic, “Any approach to addressing the plastic crisis needs to … begin by immediately and dramatically reducing the amount of plastic entering our economy, our homes, the environment, and our bodies.”
WHAT: House Oversight and Reform Environment Subcommittee briefing, “Plastic Production, Pollution and Waste in the Time of Covid-19: The Life-Threatening Impact of Single-Use Plastic on Human Health”
WHERE: Link to the live stream of the testimony is here.
WHEN: Tuesday, July 7, 2020, at 1 pm ET
RESOURCES:
Carroll Muffett’s written testimony is here.
Relevant publications: