Researchers at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine combined urine-based exposure data for di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a phthalate used to soften PVC in packaging, medical tubing and consumer goods, with cardiovascular mortality data from 200 countries.
They estimated that DEHP exposure was attributable to 356,238 cardiovascular deaths in 2018 among people aged 55–64, about 13.5% of all heart-disease deaths in that age group, and 10.47 million years of life lost. Roughly 73% of these deaths were in Asia and the Middle East, where plastic production and use are growing fastest. The economic cost was estimated at US$510 billion, and up to US$3.74 trillion when each death is given a money value, a method economists use to cost lives lost.
The study matters because it is the first global estimate of deaths linked to a single plastic additive, and it points to where the burden falls.
It is a modelled attribution based on observational associations, not a trial; say 'linked to' rather than 'caused by'. It covers one chemical, one disease and one age band, so it is not a total for plastics.