• Posted April 3, 2026

Plastics Chemical Linked To Nearly 2 Million Preterm Births Each Year

A common chemical that makes plastics more pliable may come with a grim downside: Nearly 2 million premature births per year, new research shows.

Di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP) belongs to a class of chemicals called phthalates, which have long been linked to health hazards in people. 

Phthalates are ubiquitous in products ranging from cosmetics to detergents to bug repellents, among others, said a team from NYU Langone Health, in New York City.

Their new study estimates that 1.97 million premature births recorded globally in 2018 — about 8% of all preemie deliveries for that year — had links to maternal exposure to DEHP. 

About 74,000 of those newborns died, the researchers noted. 

DEHP can break down to microscopic particles that people can then breathe in or ingest in water or food.

“By estimating how much phthalate exposure may contribute to preterm birth worldwide, our findings highlight that reducing exposure, especially in vulnerable regions, could help prevent early births and the health problems that often follow,” study lead author Sara Hyman said in a NYU Langone news release. She's an associate research scientist at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine.

Using survey data from the United States, Europe, Canada and elsewhere, Hyman's group was able to calculate people's exposures to DEHP in 200 countries worldwide. 

They then compared that data to prior research that assessed the impact of DEHP exposure to the odds for preterm birth.

Certain areas — notably, the Middle East and Southeast Asia — have particularly intense plastics industries and exposures and may comprise more than half of the global toll of preemie births linked to DEHP, the researchers said.  

Babies in Africa were at highest risk of dying after being born prematurely.

Replacing DEHP with another phthalate, called diisononyl phthalate (DiNP), may not solve the problem, the NYU group noted. 

Their analysis found that DiNP exposures would be linked to only slightly fewer preemie deliveries — about 1.9 million per year.

“Our analysis makes clear that regulating phthalates one at a time and swapping in poorly understood replacements is unlikely to solve the larger problem,” said study senior author Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor of pediatrics at NYU. 

“We are playing a dangerous game of Whac-A-Mole with hazardous chemicals, and these findings highlight the urgent need for stronger, class-wide oversight of plastic additives to avoid repeating the same mistakes,” he added.

The plastics chemical can affect health in other ways, too, the team noted. Hyman said other research has linked phthalate exposures to higher odds for cancer, heart disease and infertility.

The study was published March 30 in the journal eClinicalMedicine.

More information

Find out more about phthalates at Columbia University.

SOURCE: NYU Langone, news release, March 31, 2026