Plastic Detox, The (2026)

[bunniefuu]

Am I the only one that is just,

like, so fixated on microplastics?

-Microplastics are in everything now.

-[pensive music playing]

-[man] Microplastics.

-Hello?

We've all got microplastics in our body

-There's microplastics in your ba*ls now.

-Right now?

Well, you just ruined my day.

[upbeat music playing]

[man 1] There's plastic in everything,

and you're consuming it all the time.

Literally, your toothbrush

is getting plastic into your mouth.

Do you chew gum? That's made of plastic.

These clothes? This is polyester.

That's made of plastic.

[woman 1] We don't know

what these plastics are doing to us.

[man 2] You and me and everyone you meet

has enough plastic

in their brain to make a spoon.

[woman 2] We're finding them

all over the body, not just the brain.

The blood, the lungs,

the heart, the arteries,

the gut, the liver, the kidneys,

breast milk.

Okay, I'm full of microplastics.

Now what? What do you want me to do?

Huh? Huh? Huh?

Tell me because I don't know.

I saw a gastro doctor today,

and she said

she never drinks bottled water

because of the microplastics

and their correlation to colon cancer.

[woman 2] Plastic also leaches out

a crap-ton of chemicals.

[woman 3] I was pissed when I found out

that the toxic chemicals

contained obesogens.

Do you know what obesogens are?

[music turns unsettling]

[man 3] The more technology,

the more plastic,

the more plastic in the bodies.

It's causing people's penises to shrink,

ba*ls to shrink,

sperm counts are lowering,

and miscarriages to go up.

[woman 4] This is so crazy and alarming.

[man 3] What do we do

to try to keep the human race alive?

[woman 5] So what are the solutions

to these problems?

We can start by looking inside our homes.

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades]

[man over PA]

And now, tonight's very special guest,

the one and only Shanna f*cking Swan.

[audience cheering and applauding]

Well, I have to say [laughs]

I've never had an introduction like that.

[laughs]

In order to understand

the impacts of chemicals in plastic,

you have to see

the effect on reproduction.

[pensive music playing]

Fertility worldwide is going down rapidly.

Your book, Count Down,

says that the modern world

is threatening sperm counts and imperiling

the future of the human race.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

And it is tightly linked to chemicals

that are commonly used in plastic.

[pensive music continues]

I've been talking about these chemicals

for about a quarter of a century.

More than ever, people are worried about

how all the chemicals

we're exposed to are affecting our health.

At the same time,

the use of testosterone has increased.

My audience has always

been other scientists.

I published in scientific journals

pretty much exclusively.

And what I realized was that

that hasn't worked.

-Are human penises getting smaller?

-Yeah.

Shanna, why didn't you start with that?

[both laugh]

Now I am focused, I am honed in.

This is something

that affects me directly, Shanna.

[Swan] There's a lot of crises

in the world right now.

I don't want to scare people,

but I want to tell them

that this is also an important crisis.

This is also something

we have to pay attention to.

And actually,

in terms of our survival as a species,

it may be

one of the most important.

[pensive music playing]

One way to understand

the impacts of these chemicals

that can affect our bodies

is to look at couples who are having

a lot of problems getting pregnant.

-Hi!

-[woman] Hi! How are you?

-Are you Monique?

-Yeah, I'm Monique.

-I'm Shanna.

-Nice to meet you, Shanna.

[Swan] We recruited six couples

who are trying to conceive

but have not been able to.

And the question is, if we lower

people's exposure to chemicals

that are in plastic,

can we change their fertility?

[doorbell rings]

-Hi. How are you?

-[Swan] Hi!

Can you just tell me a little bit

about why you want to do this?

-For a baby.

-Yeah.

That's what we've been

working on for a long time now.

We've been trying to conceive

for about 22 months this month.

After about a year, we said,

"It's kind of weird

that nothing's happened."

We have been trying since we got married.

So that was about two years ago.

We have been trying to get pregnant

for over ten years now.

Two and a half years, I guess? Yeah.

Having to, like, have sex

all the time and, like, do these tests.

And it just becomes

It's, like, it's no fun.

Say what you always call yourself.

Ah. I say, "You know, Julie,

I'm not a human dildo."

[both laugh]

And then we proceed to go ahead and do it,

and I'm happy to be a human dildo.

But it is a dehumanizing thing.

-[Julie] I'm really excited about answers.

-That's wonderful.

-Wonderful, yes.

-[Julie and Eric] Yeah.

Wouldn't it be great

if we can figure this out?

So let's turn to products.

-[both] Okay.

-[Swan] Okay?

-There's plastic in here.

-[Eric] Mm.

[Swan] This is a three-month intervention

Why don't you read that?

to look at the effect

of lowering your exposure

to plastics and chemicals in plastic

on your fertility.

It's not a quote, unquote

"scientific study."

We have no control group.

It's very small.

And all of these couples who are infertile

but have unexplained infertility.

So nothing in their lifestyle

was obviously causing this,

with the exception of chemicals

in their environment.

[ominous music playing]

These chemicals are ubiquitous.

They're everywhere in our daily lives.

In hard plastics.

In soft plastics.

They're in fabrics.

The kitchen is home to obvious examples.

From utensils and cutting boards

to tea bags and coffee pods

and any number of containers.

Food packaging is often made of plastic.

And when heated, these chemicals

go into the things that we eat.

They're often in places you can't see,

like the linings of tin and aluminum cans

used for soup and beverages.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

They're in our closets.

In the fabrics and dyes of our clothing.

They're in our personal care products.

From brushes to shampoos

to deodorants and lotions.

They're in fragrances.

And our children are absolutely inundated

with plastics in their toys.

So we ingest them.

We absorb them through our skin.

We inhale them.

Every which way that they can

get into our bodies, they do.

And as they pass through our bodies,

they wreak all sorts of havoc.

[pensive music playing]

[Darby] We've done

a lot of research at home

on chemicals in the environment.

But learning more about plastics,

it's opening my eyes

to how much bigger it is.

-They're all plastics.

-[Darby] Oh, yeah.

[Swan] It's a plastic kingdom, you know?

These things we use a lot too.

-I know.

-[sighs]

[Monique] Now I cannot live without.

[Swan] These do contain chemicals

that are concerning.

And this is a problem. I use it every day.

[both laugh]

I think we have a lot of products.

[Tim] There have been more reports

of plastics and microplastics,

but I never would have thought

that they're in my body as well.

[Katie] One of the first things we did,

we threw away a cutting board.

So that felt good. [laughs]

[Swan] Thirty-five percent

of the microplastics in the ocean

come from textiles.

-Oh my gosh. Here's another.

-Oh!

[Eric] So this room is like

a chemical warfare room.

-[Swan] Yeah.

-[Eric] Is what you're saying.

[Julie] It's just for smells.

-[Eric] It's the Latino cleaning product.

-Oof! [laughs]

[Eric] When you actually look at your life

and how much plastic is in your life,

it's everywhere,

it's everywhere in my house.

I'm looking at something like,

"I have to throw that away."

[Swan] So beyond just removing

obvious plastics from all over the house,

I asked the couples to try these changes.

Try to avoid food and beverage products

that come in plastic packaging,

whether it's from the store or takeout.

Try to avoid

fragrance products and perfumes.

Try to use only natural

personal care products.

Avoid synthetic textiles

and petrochemical dyes.

And avoid handling receipts.

Almost all receipts contain bisphenol A.

[pensive music playing]

Would you mind tossing that for us?

-[woman] You don't want the receipt?

-No.

I feel like right now

we are in the movie The Matrix.

And they said, "Do you want

the blue pill or the red pill?"

I guess I forgot

which one's the one that enters

The red pill is the one that he takes.

-And I think I just took the red pill.

-[Eric] Yeah.

[laughs]

[playing "Sonate"]

[Swan] What makes

something interesting to me

is if it's a puzzle

that I think I can help solve.

The question of,

was sperm count declining?

And then if so, why?

And how do you show that?

That is a puzzle that I've been solving,

you know, for 25 years.

[pensive music playing]

How I got into this whole area

is because I was appointed to a committee

of the National Academy of Sciences

to look at these newly emerging chemicals,

which they called "hormonally active

agents in the environment."

The committee brought this paper to me,

which came out of Denmark in 1992.

They reported 50% decline

in 50 years in sperm count.

That's huge.

When I first saw it, I was skeptical.

I thought other factors

could explain that decline.

We reanalyzed the data.

And to my surprise, nothing had changed.

The sperm count had declined

by more than 50%.

That was a big wake-up call for me.

In fact, in 2023,

we found that the trend

was accelerating dramatically.

The decline was more than twice as fast

as we had reported previously.

What could cause this?

This was too fast to be genetic.

Then it's environment.

-Can we talk about these tests?

-[Julie] Oh, yeah.

-I'm super excited about that.

-Yeah.

At the beginning of the study,

we get measures

of their body burden

of environmental chemicals

by looking in their urine.

So we asked them for a urine sample.

[Julie] How do you pronounce the

"Phlalatates"?

-Phthalates?

-Phthalates.

[Swan] Do you have a preference

where we start?

Let's start with Jesse.

-In case mine upset me.

-Here we go.

And I cry.

[all laugh]

The first page says

that you have high phthalates.

-High phthalates.

-That's gonna come up afterwards.

-You have high phthalates?

-Wouldn't you know it?

This is exciting.

[Darby] I was shocked.

It was really frightening to see

we had accumulated so many chemicals.

[Jesse] It's clearly showing us

the things we're doing right now

are absolutely contributing

to what I would say

are pretty unacceptable

levels of these chemicals.

I can share your frustration, I mean

And then we look at measures of semen

quality by asking for a sperm sample.

We go to concentration.

That's the number

that most people think about.

-[Jesse] Okay. Mm-hm.

-Like, when I study sperm decline.

So the calculated total motile count,

23 is the value.

Reference should be

greater than or equal to 40.

Um, we're gonna go over

[Eric] When Shanna talked about

the results of my sperm test,

it definitely was

a very, very weird feeling.

I don't think most men are running around

getting sperm tests until it's

right up against the deadline

of when you need to know this,

which is normally after you want to get

pregnant and something hasn't worked.

[Swan] Below this point,

which is maybe 48

[Eric] It's the first time

I had really had explained to me

why that count wasn't optimal,

or really had anything explained to me.

You are technically sub-fertile,

infertile, depending on how you

-So that's kind of scary, right?

-Yes.

It's like, well, are you less of a man

because of it or anything?

Is something wrong with you?

But I was thinking,

I have to stare at this and look at this

and I have to deal with this

in order to try to make this baby.

[Swan] When I talk about

their test results,

I want to reassure them

that this does not mean

that they cannot get pregnant.

You are making sperm all the time.

It takes 70 days to create a new sperm.

And that's why we chose

this three-month window

for your intervention.

So I think the message is,

"It doesn't look great right now."

"It can change,

and you can help with the change."

[dramatic music playing]

We will also look at changes

in their body mass index

because these chemicals

not only affect your fertility,

they also have other health consequences,

such as increased obesity.

Here's a care package for you.

Then we give them a packet of products

that will help them lower their exposure.

Because the good news is there are

fantastic alternatives out there.

You can replace most of the plastic

in your kitchen with metal,

glass, ceramics, or bamboo.

You can use brushes

and floss made from bamboo

and find personal care products

without scent.

And then at the end

of the three-month period,

we measure everything again and

we'll see if this lowers

their exposure and maybe even

they get pregnant.

[Katie] I'm excited for the next 90 days.

I am bound and determined

to get those numbers down

for the plastics

or chemicals in our bodies.

And I live by the motto,

"Happy wife, happy life."

So I'll follow her suggestions

and do everything as well.

I like the cardboard container there.

-Yeah, looks great.

-Looks pretty good.

[Darby] It's 100% plastic-free.

I hope that we get pregnant.

-That would be fantastic.

-Yeah.

-A baby, yeah.

-A baby would be amazing.

-They don't look spongy.

-So it's like loofah.

Will we get pregnant because of it?

I have no idea.

[Eric] I think with infertility,

at least for us,

it's been like, what the hell do we do?

And this is something to do.

And so I'd like to see

those things down in three months.

Hopefully, they are down.

-Hopefully help you.

-Yeah.

[Swan] I don't think anyone

has actually done this experiment

to see the effect on conception

and hopefully live birth.

It's not straightforward. It's not easy.

But it's super important.

Plastics are a huge class

of man-made materials.

But unfortunately, many of the chemicals

added to plastic are toxic.

Including phthalates

and bisphenols.

[pensive music playing]

Phthalates make plastic soft and flexible.

On the other hand, the bisphenols,

like BPA, make plastic hard,

like a baby bottle or a water bottle.

These are chemicals that we call

endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

When talking about endocrine,

we're referring to hormones.

Hormones are our

natural signaling molecules.

They're like text messages that we send

from the brain to the heart or the kidney.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals

are known to hack these molecular signals.

We have a robust body of evidence

that these chemicals can contribute

to early heart attacks and stroke.

You can have small shifts

in normal thyroid hormone function

in the developing brains of young children

that can produce autism,

attention deficit disorder,

as well as cognitive deficits.

At least 50 or so synthetic chemicals

are obesogens.

Chemicals that literally make us fatter.

Studies have shown that bisphenol A

can actually reprogram the epigenome

such that mice will get bigger.

Those signals get passed

on four or even five generations

down the family tree.

[Landrigan] If a pregnant mother

is exposed to a toxic chemical,

she is exposing the reproductive organs

of three generations.

So the mother

is obviously exposing herself.

Then the toxic chemical

goes through to her baby.

That's two generations.

And then in the female child,

the eggs are already forming

in the infant's ovaries even before birth.

And therefore, the reproductive cells

of the third generation

are exposed to the toxic chemical.

You could describe this as toxic trespass.

[McDonald] The thing about

endocrine-disrupting chemicals

is not just that they alter hormones,

but they also have

carcinogenic principles.

-They are promoting the cell to divide.

-[ominous music playing]

The faster your cells are proliferating,

the faster and the more precise and quick

your DNA repair system needs to be

to correct that.

Sometimes, things don't get fixed.

Now you have a mutation

that has created the ability

of that cell to be carcinogenic.

So now we're seeing

this rise in breast cancer,

ovarian cancer,

endometrial cancer, uterine cancer,

and even prostate cancer.

So it's important to understand

you are disrupting your natural balance

when you have these outside exposures

that can "mimic" your own hormones.

[music fades]

[Swan] I feel very strongly

that it's a basic human right

to have a child if you choose to.

It's always been

extremely important to me.

[tender music playing]

I had my first child at 27,

then I had my son three years later.

And then there was a gap.

I began trying to conceive at an older age

and had several miscarriages,

which were extremely painful.

[Naomi babbling]

[Swan] I was close to giving up,

but I kept on.

And at 42, I gave birth again.

So I have three wonderful children

and six grandchildren

and one great-grandchild.

Having the privilege to know her

and see that continuity

and see our family in her

and the joy that she brings

to all of us is just--

I can't tell you. I'm almost in tears.

It's so wonderful for me.

And so it's important to me to help

people whose fertility is impaired.

I think it is unethical, criminal,

that chemicals in their environment

or other factors beyond their control

can interfere with that right.

[Darby] We've always known

that we want children.

[hopeful music playing]

[Jesse] Though we've created

a lot of problems here on this Earth,

I do think kids are the future

and they are kind of the answer

and the solution

to a lot of these problems.

[exhaling]

I think there is a harmony

to be struck there.

[Darby] My hope for them

would be they would live

with minimal impact on the planet

and caring for other people.

[chickens clucking]

[hopeful music continues]

[dogs barking]

[Monique] We are trying to get pregnant

for about two years now.

When we met, it was hard

because I was getting divorced.

[Bruno] This weekend?

[Monique] I didn't want

Cecilia to grow up alone.

And I think now

we are with the right time,

with the right person.

It's just like a dream for both of us.

And then Cecilia started asking

all the time, brother or sister.

And we got the first dog.

It was not enough,

and she asked for the other dog.

[laughs] And hopefully,

we have a baby before the third dog.

[hopeful music continues]

[Eric] Baptism proclaims

the faith of the Church.

I baptize you in the name of the Father

-[laughs]

-And he doesn't like it.

of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Sorry.

I've always wanted to have

a family of my own

that's really peaceful and wonderful.

I had amazing grandparents

and an amazing mother.

Um, and there's a piece of that

that's kind of missing,

and always was missing,

so I want it to be that for this child.

And I think that's why

I'll be so disappointed

if we never have a baby.

Just-- I want to see

a little version of you.

I think it'd be so cool.

I think you'd be the best mom ever.

And I really want to see that for you.

-Like, I really want to see that for you.

-Sorry.

You know?

Yeah. Okay, I'm good.

Yeah, I'm good.

[music fades]

[Darby] My fertility routines

have really grown over the last two years.

We want to get pregnant,

and I will do what I can do.

So you take all of these every day?

-Every morning.

-Every morning?

Yeah, actually.

We have unexplained infertility.

There's nothing "wrong with me."

I check my pH every morning

I've been looking

at what's right for my body

based on blood testing

and hormone testing.

-[Swan] What is this?

-[Darby] To make sure my body's healthy.

So this is when I would have ovulated,

released the egg,

and then they're looking

for my progesterone to rise

four to five days after.

It's a really nice way to be able

to track my hormones every day.

Many of the specialists we've seen

have had very narrow scopes of practice,

um, so they're not interested.

And when I tell them, "Oh, I'm trying

to mitigate my endocrine disruption,"

they say, "What does that mean?"

"Here, take this time-release capsule."

Right? And time-release capsules

have plastics in them.

Do you use that to time your intercourse?

Um, we just have sex all the time, Shanna.

[laughing]

To know that

there's these environmental factors

that are in the world

that are harming my chances

and taking away

my choice for parenthood is, um

-It's so overwhelming.

-Yeah, you don't really get a choice.

I don't think anyone does anymore.

-No.

-Because it's in the water.

It's in the air. It's in the soil.

I mean, is it daunting

and overwhelming? Absolutely.

[lively pensive music playing]

[Swan] So how did we get to this place

where we're all surrounded

by toxic chemicals in our homes,

in our stores,

and all throughout the environment?

How does that even happen?

[music fades]

120, 130 years ago,

most plastics were plant-based.

And then in the early 1900s,

the petroleum industry discovered

polyethylene, polypropylene,

polyethylene terephthalamide, polystyrene.

[male narrator] Reactors

and fractionating columns

crack and reform the oil's molecules,

turning them into new liquids,

gases, granules.

[Warner] When you pump the oil

out of the ground,

they separate it into a whole bunch

of different components.

One of those components

turns into what we now see

as the petroleum-based plastics.

[pensive music playing]

These inexpensive,

lightweight materials were so ubiquitous

that people just went crazy inventing

all different things to do with it.

It's a remarkable

new polyester film called Mylar.

Can you tear it?

It's almost impossible.

[Swan] Scientists could do no harm, right?

-It was a love affair with plastic.

-[music fades]

And it wasn't till quite a lot later

that we realized there was a cost to this.

[ominous music playing]

[Landrigan] Global manufacturing

of chemicals and plastics

is increasing very rapidly,

about three

to three and a half percent per year,

which means if we continue

on the present course,

we will have twice as much plastic

in the world by 2040 or 2050

as we have today.

And at the same time,

we live in a world that is awash

in manufactured chemicals.

Since about 1950,

at least 100,000 manufactured chemicals

have been developed.

In many cases,

they've never been tested for toxicity,

and so we don't know what they're doing.

It means that we're conducting

a vast toxicological experiment

in which our children

and our children's children

are the subjects without their consent.

[Swan] It's really scary

because we don't even know

the extent of this exposure.

How does that get there?

And what is it doing?

We're finding out,

and it doesn't look good.

[music fades]

Recently, the Environmental

Protection Agency, EPA,

put phthalates

on a list of chemicals that,

"may present a risk

to the environment or human health."

Congress came under pressure to act

because of a study by Dr. Shanna Swan.

Dr. Swan compared the levels

of phthalates in a group of pregnant women

with the health of the baby boys

they gave birth to.

Did you find that the higher

the level of phthalates

in the mother's urine during pregnancy,

the greater the problems

in the young boys?

-Yes.

-What did you find in the babies?

We found that the baby boys were,

in several subtle ways,

less completely masculine.

[ominous music playing]

The male genital tract requires

testosterone in this critical window

at a certain amount

to kick off what we call

the differentiation

of the male and female reproductive tract.

What would be the ovaries in the female

becomes, for example,

the testes in the male.

When phthalates come in there,

that testosterone is damped down,

and that male fetus doesn't

get that signal at the right time.

Consequently, he doesn't

develop the male typical genitals,

or maybe not quite.

That is what's known

as the phthalate syndrome.

It's pretty special

because there aren't other

syndromes named after chemicals.

Okay.

So anogenital distance is a distance

from the an*s to the genitals.

And we measure it with these calipers.

Now, Willy is much more agreeable

than a lot of babies

[laughs] so it's very easy.

Doing this with real babies

is more challenging.

-[pensive music playing]

-[indistinct chatter]

So what we do is we pull their knees back,

which actually, um,

stretches the area a little bit.

And what we do is we just find the an*s.

Right? We'll put one side

-[laughing]

-Oh my God. [laughs]

[Shantal] That is so great.

[Swan] This number in a female

would be 50 to 100 percent less.

And why is that?

Look at the stuff that has to go in here.

[Erik] The equipment, yeah.

[Swan] Yeah, all the equipment in there.

It is amaz--

This measurement is the

what we call the a**l scrotal.

This is the scrotum.

We're measuring gooches.

We're doing science.

[Swan] Boys who had symptoms

of the phthalate syndrome

had a shorter anogenital distance,

which means the male

was somewhat less masculine

or perhaps more feminized.

So they have a somewhat smaller p*nis,

more likely to have undescended testicles.

It was quite striking seeing the effect

of powerful endocrine-disrupting chemicals

on the development of male genitals.

[pensive music playing]

And then the question becomes,

does it matter for his health?

That's the key question here.

And, by the way,

is it related to his later function?

For example, his production of sperm

or his fertility?

What we found

was a direct linear relationship.

Longer anogenital distance,

higher sperm count. Very clear.

This was really important

because it says those little changes

that you hardly see at birth

actually play out during your lifespan

in terms of your reproductive success.

There's something

which is very key to my research,

which is something you might know

by the name of the taint.

That's not really a technical term, is it?

Or the gooch or the grundle.

-The gooch? I've never--

-[man] Also known as the gooch.

-You know about the gooch?

-[man] Yeah.

[Swan] Most scientific findings

are lost to the general public.

There's a little bit of news about it,

and they're gone.

It's got to be

pretty disturbing to be the--

You're the Paul Revere

of tiny testicles and taints.

[man] p*nis sizes are shrinking,

which you might have seen from headlines

There's been a huge decline

in fertility rates among men.

We may have a future where men

do not have enough sperm to reproduce.

Did you know phthalates

found in fragrances

[Swan] What surprised me

was the reception of the media

and the public

to the message I was putting out.

It's so sad because

so many people don't know

that these products

and toxins are harming them.

[Swan] People were really

kind of hungry for this information.

Babies are being exposed

to microplastics in utero.

[Swan] I think in part

because phthalates are in everybody.

This is not just an American problem.

We're seeing these issues

all across the world.

[lilting Italian folk music playing]

[music turns pensive]

[Ragusa] I chose to be an obstetrician

because everything begins at birth.

[medical devices beeping]

Every time a child is born,

it's a new world

that opens up on the horizon.

Ciao.

[woman in Italian] Push hard.

Very good, very good. Very good.

[Ragusa in English] The moment

when you see your son or daughter

for the first time,

all the neurotransmitters

inside your head, inside your body,

in fraction of a second,

when you see your child, they change.

It's an expl*si*n.

[groaning]

[woman in Italian] My God.

Congrats, Vane.

[baby crying]

My love.

He looks like his father, once again.

[all laugh]

[Ragusa in English]

Everything is concluded in a single word.

Ciao. Hey.

[Ragusa] Joy.

[crying]

[in Italian] Yes, love. Hello.

[chattering in Italian]

[tender music playing]

[Ragusa in English] When I first

saw plastic inside the human placenta,

I didn't feel joy.

Quite the opposite.

[ominous music playing]

We asked mothers

to donate their placentas,

being careful

not to corrupt them with plastic.

[ominous music continues]

-[in Italian] Can you show me?

-[woman] Of course.

[man] Yes. We have some good results.

In my opinion,

we found something interesting.

We found this object.

We see that it has multiple layers,

like other microplastics described.

[Ragusa in English]

We analyzed the samples

and in some of them

we found microplastics.

And we found various types of plastics.

Polypropylene, polyethylene and so on.

[in Italian] Have a seat.

[Ragusa in English] We thought,

"If microplastics are in the placenta,

perhaps they are in other places as well."

[nurse in Italian]

The movement is this and this.

[Ragusa in English]

We asked mothers to donate milk.

[in Italian] Excellent.

[Ragusa in English]

And we saw that in many of these samples,

there are plastics.

-[ominous music continues]

-[speaking indistinctly]

[Swan] Plastics are in everybody.

I mean, that's really scary.

[ominous music playing]

I would say the approach of industry

is to ignore the problem,

to make more of these chemicals,

to put more of them into plastic,

and increase production.

No company is going to change

making a product willingly

if it's going to affect their bottom line.

That's the reality.

So just as I won't stop

talking about the harms that I see,

they are not going to stop

following what they feel is their duty,

which is, I guess,

to protect the value of their stocks.

We have different goals.

[woman 1 on TV] After a decade

of planning and construction,

Shell's cr*cker plant

in Beaver County is finally about to open.

[woman 2] In the course of a year,

the plant will produce

3.5 billion pounds of plastic pellets.

[man 1] In its short span of operations,

the multibillion-dollar

Shell cr*cker plant

has been beset with problems.

[man 2] According to Shell's own data,

the malfunction resulted

in elevated levels of benzene,

a colorless chemical

that can cause cancer.

[Salter] The EPA knows

that toxic petrochemical facilities

are some of the most toxic

polluting facilities in the world

I'm trying to give you the floor.

and are k*lling Black people

throughout Louisiana.

Everything you have,

your clothes, your glasses,

the car you got here on,

your phone, everything you've got

is petrochemical products.

What would you do with that?

To know how people are making chemicals

with absolutely no regard

to their impact on human health,

it makes me extremely angry

and want to fight,

and that's why I'm fighting.

Tell me some of the changes you've made,

both what you eat and how you handle food.

-We do eat out a lot less than we were.

-Oh, yeah.

The study can feel daunting.

Plastics are so pervasive.

They're everywhere.

And the question then becomes, "Well

boy, can I even make any changes

that are going to make a difference?"

So, like

But I think having

Shanna here has been great

because she's been able to guide as far as

what are some alternatives we can do?

And maybe we can't get rid of everything,

but here are a few key areas that we can.

At least reduce

and see if that'll make a difference.

Of course, we'll always

be a little sad if nothing comes of it,

but you don't know until you try.

You've got to give it a shot,

see what happens.

[pensive music playing]

One way that I've tried

to reduce my plastics exposure

is by wearing more sustainable clothing

with natural fibers.

That's really hard to find.

I saw the paper, and I was really excited.

I thought they had plastic-free

shipping materials.

But they don't.

These are all wrapped in plastic.

"95% micromodal, 5% elastane."

I have no idea what any of that means.

"88% polyester recycled, 12% elastane."

So, yeah.

This is cotton, 100% organic cotton.

So yay, um, one out of three.

Yay, let's try it.

[music fades]

[Wendt] Your skin is your largest organ,

and it can absorb over 60%

of the chemicals that are put on it.

These toxins that are part

of our dye and our fabric

are being absorbed into our skin,

so it's going to shorten

our lives and our fertility.

[hopeful music playing]

I am a natural fashion designer,

and I began in the fashion industry

as a fashion model.

I did a lot of street wear,

body wear, beauty.

It definitely taught me something.

Everything is about the drape

of the fabric and the fit of the garment.

So as a model, I actually knew

how a garment should fit

before I ended up

working in the industry for designers.

I worked with Calvin Klein

and Jones New York, Perry Ellis America.

Then I moved into private label design.

Those large department stores would love

the designs that we would create,

but then they would say

it's way too expensive.

A lot of companies

are skimping on quality.

[Wendt] And so we would

have to pull pennies

out of every step of the supply chain

so that we could meet their prices.

[man] At prices like these, it can be

more expensive to clean your clothes

than it is to throw away

your dirty clothes and buy all new ones.

[Wendt] We would substitute acrylic

for wool, polyester for cotton,

nylon for silk, and spandex for rubber.

And what I didn't realize then

was that all those substitute fibers

are plastic and endocrine disruptors.

By 2030, 70% of all fibers

and therefore fabrics

are projected to be from plastic.

[pensive music playing]

[music fades]

[Wendt] When I was raising my two kids

and weaning my second

off of breastfeeding,

I discovered a lump,

and it was breast cancer.

[unsettling music playing]

I was told it was a rapidly growing,

pretty aggressive cancer.

It was very difficult for me to accept

taking chemotherapy, which is a toxin.

But I did it.

They then told me I had to do

a heavy round of radiation.

So I asked if I could just do

a double mastectomy instead.

So

um, yeah, the cancer

took my breasts and my fertility.

A few years later, I founded this company

and did a photo sh**t.

There were nine women,

and one had just done

a topless photo for us.

Across her chest it said,

"f*ck breast cancer."

I said, "Well, I had breast cancer."

We realized that out of nine women,

three of us had breast cancer.

That was a little bit

of a flame underneath me.

I thought if we create healthy clothing,

maybe we can heal,

in some way, the industry.

Hello, and welcome back to my channel.

We're doing another "best of."

I'm going to be sharing

my top ten hair care favorites.

Because, yes, I have found the secret.

[McDonald] We have routines as humans,

and routines create routine exposures.

Have you ever walked around

the personal care section of a store

and looked at the ingredients

in the products you put on your skin

and on your body every day?

[McDonald] Personal care products

and makeup contain

endocrine-disruptor chemicals.

Formaldehyde, PFASs,

which are also used in flame retardants,

phthalates, xenoestrogens, sulfates,

triclosan, EDTA, parabens

[McDonald] All of these chemicals

are added to enhance the product.

You see phthalates added in hairspray

because it helps

with the flexibility of the hair.

It's also added because

it helps the product smell good.

It's part of the ingredients for scent.

But these chemicals

that are added to enhance the product,

actually adversely affect our health.

[pensive music playing]

My research found that the earlier age

that women started using hair products,

the earlier the age they had their period.

Girls in America

are reaching puberty earlier.

The percentage of girls

getting their period before the age of 11

almost doubled from about

eight and a half to fifteen and a half.

[McDonald] Having your period early

is a risk factor for breast cancer.

Increased risk

of breast cancer, uterine cancer,

again, because there's more time that

they're subjected to the hormone estrogen.

[McDonald] The fact of the matter

is that certain populations

are more exposed to environmental toxins.

Research shows that Black girls are more

than twice as likely as white girls

to start their puberty early.

Black women have

the highest rate of breast cancer,

fibroids, obesity.

This correlation has been

linked to toxic ingredients

in their beauty products that they use.

Some groups are more exposed than others,

but we're all exposed.

[poignant music playing]

Here in Louisiana, they let industry,

in particular the fossil fuel industry,

just build there and build

and build and build and build.

You have these communities

that are completely surrounded

by the fossil fuel industry.

[woman 1 on TV]

A stretch of land in Louisiana

that used to be known

as plantation country,

residents whose ancestors

have lived here for generations

are now fighting for clean air.

[woman 2] Community after community,

all surrounded by industrial plants.

[Yearwood] Petrochemical industry

impacts people of color

from a location standpoint.

In this country, 68% of Black people

live within 30 miles

of a coal-fired power plant.

And then on top of that, within plastics

and petrochemicals here in Louisiana,

they're living literally

within just miles.

The term "fenceline community"

literally means that there's a fence

between your backyard,

your swing set,

and petrochemical facilities.

[ominous music playing]

There is a region within Louisiana

from Baton Rouge to New Orleans,

and that is "Cancer Alley."

One of my co-workers,

she died with cancer.

Right there in that house.

When you go straight,

my uncle and his wife both have cancer.

My neighbor on one side of me,

she had stage four cancer.

Went in hospital,

I ain't never seen her no more. She died.

After the plants came here,

start polluting, Oliver died.

Oliver got sick and died.

And I know because I was dating him.

And my friend Matt just died.

Matt told me to fight.

And I'm gonna fight for Matt.

Miss Sharon, we done drove

just about a mile

[Lavigne] Mm-hm.

and you called about 40 people who died.

[Lavigne] Yes.

It hurts that I know all these people,

and they're dying.

Everybody got cancer. What's wrong?

[somber music playing]

I mean, you ain't gotta go far.

-No.

-You got the home right here.

[Lavigne] Right there.

[Yearwood] Got the

fossil fuel industry right there.

[Lavigne] That's right.

-[Yearwood] And the cemetery right here.

-[Lavigne] That's right.

I mean, we all gonna die.

We just want to

We don't want to die too quick.

-Too quick. That's right.

-And not for someone else's greed.

That's right.

It's heartbreaking.

-But we gotta fight.

-Mm.

[somber music continues]

[Yearwood] Their business plan

is a death sentence for our communities.

I mean, they're making money

and profit off of the deaths of people,

like, to make plastic?

Like, to make plastic,

they're k*lling us.

[somber music continues]

[music fades]

[Jesse sighs]

[hopeful music playing]

All right. So update here.

We're in, uh, January,

about a month

into the plastic study thus far. Um

Last month, we did, uh, get pregnant,

um, but it ended up being

an early miscarriage.

It's a little bit hard

with family and everything

and trying to stay positive

during the holidays

and not being able to talk to anybody

about it. [sighs] Um

So, yeah.

Uh, seems it brought us some hope, though.

It's definitely a good sign, I think. Um

It's a good sign that my body

can get pregnant.

You know, we've been really careful

with our plastic consumption,

really diligent about the study.

Um, and we have seen the best results

as far as pregnancy goes so far.

So hopefully, by the end of the study,

we can check back in with better news.

[music fades]

[Warner] Plastic is only possible

because of chemistry.

And chemists don't want

to poison and destroy the world.

Companies know if you k*ll your customer,

that's going to be bad for sales.

So it's not a revolution to say,

"Gee whiz, we should have nontoxic,

safe things."

[somber music playing]

But if you look

at the education of chemists,

you'll be shocked to find

there is no fundamental classes

that teach people

how to anticipate the negative impacts

on human health and the environment.

They don't know

the mechanisms of toxicity.

They don't know

the mechanisms of biodegradation.

It seemed to me, shouldn't that be

the first thing a chemist learns,

you know, is how not to hurt people?

But the fact that it's absent

from the curriculum is shocking.

I actually am not someone

who grew up wanting to be a chemist.

Had anyone told me that I was gonna

end up being an industrial chemist,

I would have laughed at them.

But when I realized

that scientists created,

scientists designed, scientists imagined,

I saw chemistry as an artistic expression.

[auspicious music playing]

So I went,

and I became a medicinal chemist.

I published five papers before I was 21,

and I went to graduate school,

to Princeton.

And by the time I was 25,

I had 25 publications.

I worked on an anti-cancer drug

that's now called Alimta.

And I went to work

in industry for Polaroid.

And before very long,

I had dozens of patents,

inventions, products, awards, prizes.

And then disaster hit.

[music turns poignant]

My son John was born

with a disease called biliary atresia.

[music fades]

It's a disease where his liver's

detached from his intestines,

and he can't metabolize

water and soluble nutrients.

He was given a surgery at birth,

and at two years old, we lost him.

[somber music playing]

We never really acknowledged

he was terminally ill until the end.

We always kind of had hope.

But yeah, it's, uh it's difficult.

Lying in bed

the night of my son's funeral,

staring at the ceiling, I asked myself,

"I wonder if something I touched

in the chemistry lab

caused my son's birth defect?"

I'd say, "Why?"

"Why would anybody

invent something hazardous?"

"But wait a minute."

"If it's not part of their education

to recognize and anticipate it,

how could they not?"

[Schuh] Good, okay.

Is it?

Oh, yeah. Wow, that has a lot more--

You dissected that away

from the yolk of one?

Yeah, from right here.

[Schuh] Me and my students,

we look at various different chemicals,

ranging from BPA compounds and phthalates,

and we look at the effects

on developmental pathways

going from very, very early in development

that sort of mimic the time

that a human embryo in a womb

would be exposed

to some of these chemicals.

We use animal models

like the chick embryo.

It's really easy to do.

We micro-inject,

using little micropipettes,

various doses of the compounds.

We incubate them, and then on day 12,

we analyze them under the microscope.

[pensive music playing]

You don't have to be a scientist

to even figure it out.

You can just look at the control embryos

versus the phthalate-treated embryos.

And the differences are quite stark.

All right, so this is classic

phthalate exposure.

So all those characteristic things

that we've been seeing,

we see decreased pigmentation

across the whole body,

decreased pigmentation

in the eye and the retina and the iris.

And then in this case, especially,

we see an opening up

of the abdominal wall,

some of the internal organs

actually coming out,

protruding outside of the body wall.

So a lot of these, uh,

deformities or malformations

that are very characteristic

of phthalate exposure.

We took some representative pictures

of all of the embryos

that were treated with,

in this case, it was BPA,

even at the low doses,

and then going

to the intermediate-to-high doses.

There are extreme embryonic defects,

cranial facial disruptions.

The size of the body in this case

is a third of that

of the control situation.

Organs protruding outside of the body.

Some embryos that are just completely

malformed that they stop developing.

These are reminiscent

of many common human birth defects.

And we see that with these very low doses

of phthalates and BPA compounds.

[Trasande] Unfortunately,

many of us have been taught

that only the dose makes a thing a poison.

It's common sense.

Like, everything in moderation,

if you will.

But the reality is that even

the smallest levels of exposure

can have profound effects,

particularly when we're talking

about our hormones.

It takes only a tiny amount of a chemical

to alter the behavior of genes.

That's what endocrine disruption

is all about.

[tense, pensive music playing]

So that as a fetus is developing,

the wrong gene gets turned on

at the wrong time,

and development goes along the wrong path.

Now we know that parts per billion

can be harmful,

and that seems like

a really little amount.

But if you have a drop of water

in which there is one part per billion

of bisphenol A,

how many molecules of bisphenol A

do you think

are in that one drop of water?

2.65 trillion molecules.

And one of them can cause harm.

That's a problem.

And we're only now reaching the state

of science that we understand that.

[music fades]

[Swan] So, first of all,

it's good to see you.

Should we talk about your results?

-I think--

-Yeah.

Well, Darby, your BPA

at the beginning was really high.

-And in the follow-up, they dropped a lot.

-[hopeful music playing]

-That's amazing.

-Wow.

Jesse, you've really dropped in your BPA.

-[Jesse] Really?

-[Darby] Wow.

So all of those efforts have paid off.

-That's crazy.

-Wow.

[Swan] I was extremely happy

with the results of the intervention.

After six weeks,

almost everybody dropped

their bisphenol A to non-detectable.

They also dropped their phthalate levels.

And interestingly,

the man and the woman in the couple

had values which traveled in parallel,

which meant they reflected changes

in their shared environment.

[music fades]

I wouldn't say I was surprised that

our participants reduced their exposures.

What was less clear is how this would

affect their sperm counts.

And to be honest, after six weeks,

we didn't see much change.

I was really sad when I got those results.

I was like, "Dude, what is this?"

Like, I was so upset.

[Swan] This was, of course,

disappointing to the participants.

But we have to remember,

it takes 70 days to produce new sperm.

So it's likely

that we won't see improvement

until our final samples.

We're all trying to do a hard thing.

And, um, I think

we have to relax a little bit

and, if we can,

give it a little more time.

[audience laughing]

I come to you as a sperm

to ask for your help.

We sperm are becoming

an endangered species.

But this is a problem we can fix.

Please join me

in welcoming one of the people

who really is saving our sperm

and our future,

John Warner.

[audience applauding]

You may be thinking it's strange

to be introduced by a sperm.

[audience laughs]

[Warner] But if you really think about it,

you all were.

[audience laughing]

[Warner] After I lost my two-year-old son

to a birth defect,

I realized that there was

a missing element to my education.

And I realized that no university

teaches a chemist anything

about what makes a molecule toxic.

I realized that the world

didn't need a social movement.

The world didn't need a politic.

The world needed a new science.

A science that taught a chemist

how to anticipate these negative impacts.

And that is the birth

of the field of green chemistry.

[dramatic music playing]

Paul Anastas and I wrote the book

on green chemistry back in the 1990s.

You do any science,

any chemistry you normally would,

but you put a layer of interpreting,

"What if this actually succeeds?"

"What if instead of it just being

a publication in a journal,

some company actually starts making

thousands and thousands

of kilotons of it?"

"What impact are my decisions

on that first day of my invention

going to have in the future?"

That's green chemistry.

At last count,

I think I've been to over 65 countries

meeting presidents and prime ministers

and cutting ribbons and giving talks,

that it's starting to be a movement.

And almost 100 universities globally

have signed this commitment

saying we will bring green chemistry

into the required curriculum.

But everyone in society

needs to understand

things don't have to be toxic.

We can learn to do it other ways.

[dramatic music continues]

[Swan] Just everywhere you look,

you have plastic.

We are really dependent on it.

It'd be hard to think about

a plastic-free world.

But plastic in and of itself

is not the evil.

It is the chemicals in it

that have the ability

to alter our hormones.

[music fades]

[helicopter whirring]

Many people think

the government takes care of us.

They would not let us be exposed

to things that would harm us.

But we're not protected against

the chemicals in our everyday products.

In terms of regulating these chemicals

in the United States,

very few chemicals are actually banned.

And most chemicals

haven't even been tested.

[unsettling music playing]

[Landrigan] Time and again,

we have come to realize

that chemicals on the market for years

were causing toxicity.

With DDT.

[man 1 on TV] Pesticides may indeed

represent a grave threat to mankind.

[Landrigan] With asbestos.

[woman on TV] Today, the Environmental

Protection Agency finalized a ban

on the only type of asbestos

still used in the United States.

[Landrigan] Lead in the gasoline

was causing brain damage to children.

[man 2 on TV] Leaded gasoline caused half

of the population to develop a lower IQ.

[Landrigan] When we took lead

out of gasoline,

we reduced children's blood levels by 95%.

We raised the average IQ of a generation

of children by about five IQ points.

And those more intelligent,

more highly creative children

have put billions of dollars

back into the economy.

So it's a huge success story.

I think a big question right now is,

what are we gonna do about plastics?

[music fades]

The media has reported that the federal

government's reluctance to regulate

these chemicals is based

on the reliance of biased studies

from the chemical industry itself.

Senator, at FDA,

all of our products that we approve

are based on data that are prepared

and conducted in studies

by that particular manufacturer.

But doesn't that bother you?

That's my point.

You don't seem to see the connection here.

We got here because the scientific

understanding of endocrine disruption

did not exist when plastics

first came onto the market.

Our genes actually are being turned

on and off trillions of times a second

every day of our life,

every second of our life.

And things like phthalates

and bisphenol A affect

that process of turning genes on and off.

The FDA and EPA and the CDCs,

their science currently ignores

molecular genetics.

Over the last 30 years,

the science has gotten a lot stronger.

If anything, we underestimated

the scale of the problem.

[unsettling music playing]

The plastics industry

grew to be a behemoth,

and we let that get ahead of us

and out of control.

Many chemicals

leaching out of plastics are EDCs.

That links them to a wide array

of today's epidemics

of noncommunicable diseases,

like breast cancer, prostate cancer,

testicular cancer, infertility,

immune disorders, and brain impediments.

Unfortunately, in the United States,

regulatory toxicology,

it's stalled because the chemical industry

has too much influence on Congress.

Period.

Stable supply chains are imperative.

Producing plastic in America

is a good thing.

[tense, pensive music playing]

[Yearwood] We now are here

on a plantation site

where my ancestors

were extracted from Africa

and brought here to be enslaved people.

The memory of that is still real.

And now the fossil fuel industry

here in Louisiana,

they are literally looking to build plants

on former plantation sites,

knowing how painful

that history is for everyone.

It's heartbreaking

because they take the same mentality

that was used on plantations

to not only extract from Mother Earth,

but to then harm those same people.

This shows how they don't care

about humanity.

-[music fades]

-[indistinct chatter]

[Edwards] We're here to announce that

Formosa will be investing $9.4 billion.

So I'm delighted to announce

all this extraordinary capital investment,

job creation,

right here in St. James Parish,

just about two miles

from the foot of the Sunshine Bridge.

[ominous music playing]

[Yearwood] The Formosa plant

was a plant that they wanted to build

on a former plantation site.

And this isn't just any plant.

It's being called

the largest facility in the state.

[Yearwood] And people like Sharon Lavigne

who were pushing back

an international mega corporation,

literally off their kitchen table.

[woman on TV]

This is a David and Goliath story

if there ever was one.

A multibillion-dollar chemical company

was all set to build

a massive new plant there.

That is, until they encountered

Miss Sharon Lavigne and Rise St. James.

[Lavigne] Formosa Plastics was proposed

to be built two miles from my home.

And I said, "Dear Lord, this land

cannot be for Formosa. We live here."

I had no intentions

on becoming an activist.

All I know was Formosa Plastics

kept ringing in my ear.

-First of all, we went to God first.

-[Yearwood] Mm-hm.

-I know I went to God.

-[Yearwood] Come on.

And I sat on my porch, and I prayed.

And I asked God,

and if God would have told me to move,

I wouldn't be in this fight today.

But God told me to fight.

[tense music playing]

I was told that,

"The governor approved this plant,

and you can't stop it."

I said, "Tell the governor

to build it in his community."

He thinks the people

in St. James are stupid

and they're gonna just put another

industry on us, and we have 12?

No.

That dog is not gonna hunt.

We rallied.

We gave marches.

We went to the parish council meetings.

If Formosa come into St. James,

we will not be able to live.

We are Rise St. James, and we're gonna

stand up for St. James Parish.

Formosa has a fight on their hands.

[music fades]

[Swan] So let me talk to you

about what your last results are.

What's dramatic is, for me, Katie,

that your phthalates went up a lot.

And here you are at a time that you

were lowering all your exposures.

[Katie] There's something hidden then.

I'm like, "What's hidden that I'm?"

Is it something at work?

You know, like, who knows?

Tim, your sperm numbers

are not great, right?

-[Tim] Right.

-Yeah.

Your concentration

actually went down a little bit.

Okay.

It doesn't look like there's been

a significant improvement,

I would have to say, honestly.

What's heartbreaking in these studies

is that not everyone is going to improve.

It's a difficult thing to remove

all the contaminants in your life.

Endocrine disruptors are so pervasive,

you're being exposed

even when you least expect it.

But that doesn't make it

easier to give bad news.

I mean, you guys have tried

for a long time, right?

[Tim] Mm-hm.

-Yeah. Over ten years.

-[Tim] Yeah.

I mean, I'm really glad

that the intervention

has been helpful to your life.

[Tim] Yeah.

But I don't see any signs here

that you're going to imminently,

you know, gonna get pregnant.

-[Katie] For sure.

-[Tim] Right.

-[Katie] And that's okay, like

-[Tim] Yes.

[Katie] We, you know

We know it's going to take a miracle, so

[poignant music playing]

It's been really hard

not being able to conceive.

In all honesty,

there definitely have been moments

when I have felt pretty jaded about it.

Difficult part that has actually

gotten more difficult each year,

at least for me, is, um

like Father's Day and Mother's Day.

Something that I always thought

I'd be celebrating.

But that's not who we are.

[Katie] It just makes you think,

"Wow, our lives are so much different

than what I expected them to be."

But I'm never going to let go

of this hope that I have

that we could still

possibly have kids one day.

[woman on TV] California's top cop

subpoenas ExxonMobil

[man] Attorney General Rob Bonta says

fossil fuel and petrochemical companies

have been overstating the role

of recycling and curbing the problem.

The fossil fuel

and petrochemical industries

have engaged in a half-century

campaign of deception.

The work I do is official in conduct,

but it's also personal.

My oldest daughter has told me,

"Dad, I love my family."

"I want to have

a family of my own someday."

"But I don't think it's responsible

to bring a child onto this dying planet."

"So I'm not planning

on having a family right now."

That's wrong.

We shouldn't steal the dreams of our--

Of the next generation

because of our mistakes,

of our failure, uh, to be responsible.

In pursuit of what? Endless profit?

[dramatic music playing]

The entire plastics industry

is built on a lie.

The only reason

that plastics today are ubiquitous

is because people were told

that this product can be recycled.

[commercial narrator]

People start pollution.

People can stop it.

[Oliver] The organization

that produced that ad,

Keep America Beautiful,

was funded in part

by a plastics industry trade group

and composed of leading beverage

and packaging corporations,

which might seem odd until you realize

that the underlying message there is,

"It's up to you,

the consumer, to stop pollution."

[unsettling music playing]

[Bonta] People would not

have purchased plastics

and relied on plastics

and consumed plastics

knowing that it was

destroying the planet as we did so.

The California Department of Justice

launched an investigation into ExxonMobil.

We became aware of internal communications

that said things like

recyclability at scale

is not financially viable.

Yet they were continuing to sell the myth

of recyclability of plastics.

Making recycling work was a way

to keep their products in the marketplace.

-It was a way to sell plastic.

-[Liesemer] Yes.

It's a win-win situation.

[Bonta] Today, only 9%

of plastics are recycled.

It's shocking.

And the reason is because

the big plastic companies

won't profit from it.

It costs too much to recycle.

[Trasande] And we are

making so much plastic,

we're overwhelming

the capacity of the system

to even recycle itself in the first place.

[woman on TV] But after decades

as the dumping ground

for more than half of the world's trash,

China has banned most types

of low-grade recycling products.

What appears to be happening is that

China is tired of importing our trash.

If plastic products are not recyclable,

then it needs to be stated as such.

There needs to be a truth in advertising.

Oh, Tracy, look, she's going for the bin.

[Bonta] The fact that, you know,

this myth was allowed to occur

for decades and decades, it's shocking.

It's not unlike tobacco.

[ominous music playing]

[music fades]

When you have big corporations

that are lying to the public

and fueling a global plastics

pollution crisis, it needs to end.

And I'm not gonna wish or hope

it into existence, I'm gonna do it.

[whirring]

[Wendt] When I was diagnosed with cancer,

I had been teaching sustainable fashion,

and I realized that

it was no longer about sustainability.

It was about

eliminating all petrochemicals.

Textiles are the single largest source

of microplastics in the environment.

[hopeful music playing]

But at California Cloth Foundry,

the fibers are cotton, linen, hemp, flax,

viscose from trees.

The most toxic process

in the textile supply chain are the dyes,

and those are from petrochemicals.

So many of our ingredients

can be found in the kitchen,

like chestnuts and iron.

Those are the main ingredients

in our North Face and Levi's program.

Another would be elderberries,

one of the colorants we use

for Gisele's Gaia hoodie.

But it's expensive.

So to really change fashion

from a highly toxic, high-volume industry,

we have to scale green chemistry.

[ethereal music playing]

[Gutsch] Fashion is so unnecessary,

and still it plays a big role in society.

Most of my adult life,

I worked as a designer,

and it was mainly about

inventing new products.

And at some point,

I realized that I'm actually the one

that is creating all these

environmental issues we are facing.

As a designer, you convince people

to buy, to spend, to waste.

But ten years ago,

I realized that people like me

can decide if a company is harmful,

or establish

a totally new way of doing business.

So in 2015,

we tried to convince corporations

to use recycled materials

instead of making more of it.

We created sneakers out of fishing nets.

But plastic stays plastic,

even if you recycle it.

So plastic needs to go.

Next up, I would like

to invite Cyrill Gutsch.

Hey, hey. What's up, Paris?

Now is the time to invent new materials

that are made from nature.

This is the first jacket designed

by Dior, Kim Jones, to support us

in this process of making

Bananatex a new technology.

The concept of a plastic doesn't have

to come from a petroleum-based material.

There's no laws of physics

that say it has to be these materials.

They just happen to be

the ones we're using now.

Let's open our eyes, embrace nature,

and learn, "How does nature

make something transparent?"

"How does nature

make something strong but flexible?"

[hopeful music playing]

Everything that you could use to define

what a plastic or a polymer does,

nature does.

And if we can learn from nature,

we can make things that are less toxic

and more environmentally responsible.

At Sway, we use seaweed

to replace really pervasive plastics,

mainly thin films.

This shoe is 100% plastic-free,

so the whole product

can be put into the compost.

After seven to ten weeks,

there's nothing left but nutrients.

[woman] We make

the world's first performance pigment

that's 100% plant-based.

And we're looking to replace

all the traditional dyes, toxins.

We mimic the same principles

that give butterflies their natural color.

So we can make any color

on the visible spectrum.

[Gutsch] We are in the midst

of what we call a material revolution.

This is the biggest and the most exciting

challenge we humans ever had.

We fight for our own survival

by redesigning, by recreating,

by redefining the foundation

of our society,

how things are being made.

[hopeful music continues]

[Warner] Someday, imagine when we say,

"The world has now nontoxic,

safe polymers and plastics and materials."

Someday, we need to look people

in the eye and say, "We did it."

Not, "We want to do it," but, "We did it."

That's gonna take great risk,

trial and error and hard work.

[music fades]

[Swan] Even though the couples

reduced their exposures dramatically

at the midpoint of the study,

I was interested to see if they would

be able to maintain that vigilance.

Let's look at some of your graphs.

-Shall we?

-[Jesse] Yeah, let's do it.

[Swan] So this is Darby, and this is BPA.

-Okay.

-Mm-hm.

[Swan] You have this drop at midpoint.

These were your high

molecular weight phthalates.

You remember

those are the ones in soft tubing

and, you know, soft water bottles.

-Your values just plummeted.

-[poignant music playing]

-So I would say that's a success.

-[Darby] That's great.

So, Jesse, this is your BPA,

and this was in the beginning.

You did a miracle and you went down,

and you stayed down morning and evening.

-And that's just phenomenal.

-That's great.

[Swan] The high molecular weight,

you were also quite high when you started,

and then you brought it down,

and you stayed down.

-That's great.

-[Swan] So you're a star.

-How'd you do that?

-Well, uh

[Darby and Jesse laugh]

[Swan] Our couples were able

to keep their bisphenols down,

many to undetectable levels,

which is amazing.

And while phthalates were more stubborn,

we did see a meaningful reduction

in the average.

And couples, first of all, stuck with it,

liked it, and want to continue

these changes going forward.

I think what we gave up mostly

was going out to eat.

We saved a lot of money,

and we spent more time together cooking.

So it's been a positive for you.

-Yes, definitely.

-Absolutely.

And once you know,

you kind of can't go back.

So that's the only downside

to learning more about plastics.

Do you feel that?

-You feel you can't go back?

-[Darby] Yeah.

It was not that hard, uh, as we thought

because it was just like one week,

let's do this,

and another week, let's do that.

I think what's stuck

has been those habits you develop.

You know, you get in the pattern

of not using, or using the replacement.

Like changing how we prepare food

and how we store food.

The biggest thing is fragrances.

You know, laundry detergent, for example.

We would smell it

literally 24/7 and it'd be like,

"Oh my gosh, I can't stop smelling this."

If we're gonna buy a blanket or something,

we try to buy 100% cotton.

-Yeah.

-Like, we're now more aware.

I've since become an evangelist of this,

by the way.

I think people start to care

once they start to realize

that it's affecting them.

[music fades]

[Yearwood] People fight against all odds.

Truly, David versus Goliath.

But they got a strong faith

and a strong spirit that is unbelievable.

On this land in St. James,

as it's the proposed site

for the $9.4 billion

Formosa petrochemical plant.

And the land that the plant is built on

is causing an uproar after the discovery

of unmarked graves of enslaved people.

[Yearwood] The legislation

that we have now in Louisiana

says you can't build on graveyards.

[poignant music playing]

What's crazy about that is that that's

actually how people are now winning.

The ancestors who are buried

in many unmarked graves

is now stopping the fossil fuel plants.

It's almost like those ancestors

are reaching back

and saying, "Enough."

-[Lavigne] We're gonna stand together.

-[man] Right.

-[Lavigne] And fight Formosa.

-[man] Right.

We will not allow them

to take our ancestors out of this ground

and put them somewhere else.

Judge Trudy White ruled in our favor

and told Formosa to vacate the property.

Because we have the right

to breathe clean air.

Sharon Lavigne is a true force of nature.

She is to be reckoned with.

[Yearwood] I know

that if we come together,

we win.

I've said it, organized people

beats organized money every single time.

[music fades]

[Landrigan] The impediments

to controlling exposures

to toxic chemicals are not,

for the most part, scientific.

And what's required

to deal with the problem is courage,

vision, political will.

[hopeful music playing]

No country is doing a perfect job

in regulating toxic chemicals and plastic.

[music fades]

But the European Union

is the world leader.

They have chemical legislation

called REACH,

which actually requires

that chemicals be tested

for safety and toxicity

before they come to market.

[Swan] There are nine chemicals

that are banned

from personal care products

in the United States.

And over 1,100 that are banned in the EU.

You can see

that's two orders of magnitude.

[man on TV] New EU rules

proposed by the European Commission

will target ten

single-use plastic products.

These products won't disappear.

They will just be made

with different materials.

We have an opportunity.

There's an international

global plastics treaty

being negotiated by the UN.

[Valdivieso] This conference

is about far more

than drafting an international treaty.

It is about humanity rising

to meet an existential challenge.

[Swan] We're finally seeing some traction

on banning bisphenol A, or BPA,

and other lookalike bisphenols,

which cause the same harms.

These chemicals disrupt hormones,

including increasing estrogen.

In fact, BPA was studied in the 1930s

for its potential use

in hormone regulation,

including birth control.

In 2025, the EU said enough is enough.

[woman on TV] As of Monday,

the European Union has prohibited the use

of this endocrine disruptor

in food containers.

[Trasande] If we really

incorporate a health mindset,

we will get past a model that focuses

on what we see on our beaches,

in our oceans.

We need to think about what's getting

into human bodies, ultimately.

[music fades]

[FaceTime call ringing]

Did you change anything

in your work environment

that might have decreased your exposure?

I changed a lot. For me, I changed a lot.

[Swan] After I met Bruno,

I was worried that he would not be able

to lower his exposures

or improve his sperm count.

He is a construction worker,

had a lot of exposures

from construction materials.

I was wrong.

You have four semen analyses, right?

Three of them are really good,

and the last one is really good.

The pattern overall

is that you have gotten greatly improved.

[Monique] Yeah.

We were not expecting at all.

We thought, "What?"

If we look at your concentration,

it was 44.

And then it was 60.

I did see some sperm results from you,

and they got a lot better.

Ooh, good.

[Swan] Your total

motile count increased 50%.

-[Katie] Gosh.

-[Tim] Yeah.

-So that's huge.

-[Katie] That's awesome.

-Whoo-hoo! [laughs]

-Yeah. [laughs]

The numbers were

We were talking about that quite high.

-Concentration is way up.

-[Kate] I know!

[Swan] It's just incredible.

You've turned into Superman.

[all laugh]

I have results here.

I think the most exciting to me,

and probably to you,

is that your total sperm count

is way high.

The cutoff for fertile is about 40.

You were originally below that,

and now you're at 77,

which is awesome!

-Thank you.

-[all laughing]

[Swan] I was really pleased

with the results of the sperm analysis.

Of the six men in the study,

five improved their semen quality

on multiple parameters.

-So, how do you feel about that?

-I feel great.

-Yeah?

-Um, yeah.

It feels really good

that the intervention actually worked.

And I went from being sub

or not fertile to normal.

[Swan] Another really positive takeaway

from this intervention

is that it seemed to improve their lives

in many ways that we had not expected.

When we cut everything out, I went from,

I think I was like at 212

when we did the measurement,

down to like 198.

And now I'm back around 202.

So ten pounds you lost.

I wake up way less at night,

and I sleep, like, deeper.

[hopeful music playing]

[Swan] A third of the participants

lowered their body mass index.

Over 60% reported increased energy levels,

80% reported increased sleep quality,

and 86% reported they plan

to keep these lifestyle changes.

[Eric] I feel like

I'm able to focus for longer.

There's not the fog that used to be there.

I just feel better, and I enjoy life more.

So why the hell

would I not continue to do this?

[Swan] It's true that

to understand patterns of disease,

you need a large population.

So these results will be used

to support an application

for a larger study

with government funding.

So I think we're pioneers.

[music fades]

[in Portuguese] Well, today I decided

to take a pregnancy test, another one,

and I'm going to share with you.

We never know, right?

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

[hopeful music playing]

What does it mean?

It's not a joke, is it?

It's not a joke, right? This can't be.

[Bruno] There are two.

[laughing]

I'm not trusting this test.

Okay, hold it here.

I'll use another one now.

Oh, my love.

Oh!

[Bruno] Oh, my love.

[sobbing]

[in English] I love you.

So since we last spoke, uh,

life has changed quite a bit.

[Julie] Right now, I'm 15 weeks pregnant.

And we already know it's a boy,

so we can't name the baby Shanna, really.

Yeah, I know. We were planning on Shanna.

[Darby] Okay, this is Bobby.

Those are feet.

After the study,

we found out we were expecting.

Yeah! We're [laughs]

Yeah, we're pregnant.

-Yeah.

-It's amazing.

-Mostly I'm pregnant, but we are pregnant.

-Well, it's the way they say it, right?

[hopeful music continues]

[Swan] Initially, my introduction

to all the participants was on paper.

But I was continually surprised

what a pleasure it was to meet them,

to interact with them,

to get to know them.

[doctor] It looks great.

-[Monique] Oh!

-[doctor] Did you see it moving?

[in Portuguese] Oh, it's moving, honey.

[laughing]

[Swan in English]

I feel connected with each of them.

And it's very surprising

because it's unusual for a study

that you would have that.

[hopeful music playing]

Knock, knock.

-[Monique] Hi!

-[Swan] Hi!

[Swan laughs]

[baby crying]

[Swan] Look what you did.

[laughing]

-[Monique] We did.

-We did.

[hopeful music playing]

[Swan] If you want to have a child,

I believe it is a fundamental human right

to be able to do so.

I think I'm now more optimistic

about solving the fertility problem.

But it's going to be a fight,

and that's why I'm fighting,

and that's why I'm talking to you.

[laughs]

[baby coos]

-[Swan] You are perfect.

-[Monique] Yeah.

[baby coos]

[hopeful music continues]

[music intensifies]

[hopeful music continues]

[music fades]