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Early warning signs applied to plastic

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) has formulated five early warning signs to be considered by regulators when it comes to materials and substances. These warning signs reflect many concerns raised about plastics and are thus worth considering during the design and regulation of new and established polymeric materials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Velux Fonden’s financial support of the MarinePlastic project.

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All authors contributed equally to the preparation of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Steffen Foss Hansen.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Annex XIII of the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R1907&from=EN

International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species: https://www.iucnredlist.org

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Paulsen, F.L., Nielsen, M.B., Shashoua, Y. et al. Early warning signs applied to plastic. Nat Rev Mater 7, 68–70 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00317-9

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