JOHN YANG: In Geneva, negotiators from 175 nations are trying to hammer out the first ever legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.

The key sticking point is whether it should mandate cuts in plastic production.

Oil producing nations including the United States oppose that as fossil fuels are a key ingredient in plastics.

The urgency of the talks was underscored this week by a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet.

It calls plastics a grave growing and under recognized danger to human and planetary health.

Tracey Woodruff is a professor at the UC San Francisco Medical School and one of the authors of the Lancet study.

Tracey, A grave, growing and under recognized danger.

What is that danger?

Explain the danger to us.

TRACEY WOODRUFF, UC San Francisco School of Medicine: Plastic contains thousands of toxic chemicals.

Some of them we know something about and some of them we don't know anything about.

But the ones that we do know about, we know that they can lead to increased risk of multiple different types of chronic health effects.

For example, one chemical that's used commonly in plastics to which we are all exposed are phthalates.

These are chemicals that are used in everything from vinyl flooring, curtains, plastic couches, even in your car, cosmetics, fragrances.

These chemicals are ubiquitous.

They're measured in everybody.

And we know they increase the risk of multiple adverse health conditions like obesity and diabetes and they can increase the risk of preterm birth.

There's also an increased production of plastics.

Currently planned plastic production will triple in the next 30 years.

That means more plastic products and more plastic chemicals to which we will be exposed.

JOHN YANG: Talk about the production picking up the pace.

Why is it accelerating?

TRACEY WOODRUFF: Plastics are made from fossil fuels, oil and gas.

And the fossil fuel industry is turning to plastics to stay profitable making plastic and the petrochemicals used in plastic is more profitable than using it for fuel and energy and electricity.

So as the world uses less oil in some cases to address climate change concerns, the fossil fuel industry is shifting its focus to producing more plastic and plastic related chemicals to maintain and increase their profits.

JOHN YANG: You know, we see recycling bins everywhere now on the street and offices.

What impact or what effect does recycling have?

TRACEY WOODRUFF: Well, recycling is pretty much a myth that's been sold to us by the fossil fuel industry.

And in fact, a report just came out this week talking about how those that the fossil fuel industry knew that you can't actually really recycle plastic.

The fact is that less than 10 percent of plastic is recycled and only 1 percent is recycled twice.

And what that means is that a lot of this plastic we're being told, is being recycled to make us feel better, but it's really going into the waste stream.

It's degrading in the environment, it's degrading into all of these, varied in the oceans, in fish, and then it's getting into us.

So the reality is recycling is not the solution.

JOHN YANG: There's been a lot of talk about microplastics being so pervasive.

Help us understand what that is and do we know what the effects are of having microplastics in our bodies?

TRACEY WOODRUFF: Yeah, microplastics, they're essentially little plastics and they're very small, usually smaller than the human eye can see.

And they're basic.

They come from the degradation of all these many plastics that are being produced by these fossil fuel companies.

And we know that people carry little bits of microplastics in their body because they've been measured in every part of the body that they've been looked at.

So everything from breast milk to blood to feces, even in your brain.

JOHN YANG: These talks in Geneva, they had hoped to conclude this by the end of 2024.

Obviously they haven't.

What's at stake in these talks?

TRACEY WOODRUFF: Well, the health of everybody on this planet is at stake in these talks.

The goal of the pla -- of the countries that want to see something done about plastic pollution is to identify the hazardous chemicals in the plastics and reduce or eliminate them.

The goal of the fossil fuel producing countries is to basically increase plastic production.

And they are deviating the plastic negotiation treaties by focusing on recycling, which I have said is not really the solution to plastic production.

And so because these countries or the projected estimates are to triple by 26 plastic production, it really is an important inflection point in how we as well really as part of the global community, decide how we want to address plastics and the plastic related chemicals which we already know are already resulting in adverse human health effects around the globe.

JOHN YANG: Tracey Woodruff of UC San Francisco Medical School, thank you very much.

TRACEY WOODRUFF: Well, thank you.