Our Mission
We elevate medical and scientific voices to expose the health harms of plastic and drive reduction and regulation.
Vision
We envision a world in which necessary plastics are made from non-toxic materials, and frivolous single use plastics are eliminated.
Achievable goal
To advance medical recognition that plastic is a hazardous material, knowing that social and regulatory change is likely to follow medical consensus.
The Problem
The enormous volume of existing data justifies this. The costs of inaction are too grave and too significant to ignore.
Everyone in the world is exposed to plastic in their daily lives, but few recognize that plastic is a petrochemical product with significant impacts on human health. Fewer still have information about how they can protect themselves and future generations. From the chemical additives that migrate into food, to the micro- and nanoplastics that become embedded in our bodies, the effects of the material are substantial. And they are steadily worsening.
P-SNAP recognizes that the most just and effective solutions take place “upstream” at the institutional and policy level. Thus, our overarching purpose is to communicate the science surrounding plastics and health to enable policy change and give providers and patients the tools to protect themselves.
Our Solution
P-SNAP uses medical and scientific voices to advance medical recognition that plastic is a hazardous material.
P-SNAP members speak to providers, patients, lawmakers, the press, healthcare institutions, and others. Healthcare personnel are trusted messengers, even in a highly polarized society. Because our voices are trusted – we can be effective messengers.
The P-SNAP network serves as a site of connection and professional collaboration for participants. These are essential aspects of a thriving social movement. By design, the P-SNAP organizing structure is horizontal, meaning that members are enabled and encouraged to communicate directly with each other, to raise and answer questions, to discuss new initiatives, and to foster collaboration wherever possible.
We envision a world in which unnecessary single-use plastics are eliminated, and essential plastics are made from safe materials and used sparingly, in ways that safeguard human and environmental health.
Our Values
Basis in Fact
P-SNAP participants rely on reputable sources of scientific data and research.
Self-determination
People realize their highest potential when they are empowered to work on the issues they find to be personally the most relevant, and when they are invited to bring their creativity and resourcefulness. P-SNAP maintains a horizontal organizing model intended to enable flexibility and autonomy to all participants.
Collaboration
Ideas flourish in many places and are most powerful when shared. The P-SNAP network is cross-disciplinary, with the goal of connecting organizations, experts, rank-and-file professionals, and others, encouraging participants to break down silos.
Non-Partisan
P-SNAP recognizes that the most just and effective solutions tend to take place at the policy level, a conviction that is non-partisan.Everyone needs to be part of this solution set. The Network fosters relationships with persons and organizations willing to address the health harms of plastics, regardless of political affiliation.
Justice and Equity
We prioritize efforts to protect and improve the health of marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by the health harms of plastic. This includes its production, use, and disposal, both at the present time and in the future based on industry expansion.
Future Generations
The plastics industry has its eye on the future, and so do we. According to industry projections, plastic production will triple by 2050. Petrochemical production will increase, as well. Seventy per cent of petrochemicals are used to create plastics. Living with the kind of permanent pollution that comes from manufacturing is life-changing, and in too many cases life-threatening. The P-SNAP network aims to alter the trajectory of current and future production by alerting people to its true cost. Human lives are too steep a price to pay for disposable plastics.
Who We Are
We are pediatricians, epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, nurses, psychiatrists, general practitioners, OBGYNs, public health workers, research scientists, and more. We see the effects of environmental contaminants on our patients in their health and clinical outcomes and in our communities. We are close readers of the scientific literature and understand that the impacts of plastics on patients’ bodies are the result of a structural failure to regulate or contain hazardous synthetic materials.
Staff
Megan J. Wolff, PhD MPH
Vanessa Hughes, MPH
Advisory Board
Jane van Dis, M.D.
Elizabeth Ryznar, M.D., MSC
Matt Kayhoe
Michael Shank, PhD
Edward C. Ketyer, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Strategic and Project Collaborators
P-SNAP is a site of connection and professional collaboration for individuals and organizations. Our voices and programs are stronger together, and our skills are better honed. Some of our allies in strategy and project creation include the following organizations:
Become a part of P-SNAP
Anyone can join us at one of our upcoming public events, or if you’re a physician, nurse, research scientist, or other healthcare personnel, request access to our network by creating an account.