This week at WHO headquarters in Geneva, more than 400 young leaders from over 50 countries and all six WHO regions called on governments to protect human health from the preventable harms of plastics. Over four days, delegates of the Global Model WHO negotiated in six committees: high school delegates on urban health and oral health, and university delegates on artificial intelligence, health information and trust; the ethical governance of international recruitment of health personnel; plastics and health; and the commercial determinants of health. At the closing ceremony of the fourth Global Model WHO, held from 10 to 13 November 2026, delegates adopted the Global Model WHO Youth Declaration on Plastics and Health.
“We grew up hearing about plastics as a problem for the oceans. With this declaration, we make clear that it is a problem for our health too,” said Alexander Dietz, Director-General of the Global Model WHO 2026. “Most of the plastic ever produced was made during our lifetimes, and we are the ones who will live with it. So, we ask the negotiators to put health in the treaty, and we commit to doing our part at home.”
The declaration is addressed to two meetings in 2027: the resumed negotiations on a global plastics treaty at the fourth part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in March, and the Eightieth World Health Assembly in May. Delegates note that the Chair’s informal treaty text of August 2026 contains no article on health.
The declaration sets out 11 calls to action. These include binding health obligations throughout the treaty, ministries of health in national delegations, and safeguards against conflicts of interest from the plastics and petrochemical industries. It also calls for measurable targets to reduce plastic production, a phase-out of chemicals of concern, and standardized methods to measure plastic chemicals and particles in the human body. Further calls cover safe waste management as a public health investment, protection of waste pickers, and time-limited, reviewed exemptions for chemicals of concern in medical devices, beginning with products used by infants and pregnant people.
The delegates point to the evidence behind their concern. More than 16 000 chemicals are used or found in plastics, and at least one in four is hazardous. Plastic particles have been detected in human blood, brain tissue and amniotic fluid. “We should not have to be the test subjects to find out what we still don’t know,” the declaration reads.
“Keep asking hard questions. Keep looking for the deal that others say cannot be done,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
The Global Model WHO is a partnership initiative between WHO and the World Federation of United Nations Associations. It simulates the World Health Assembly, the world’s health decision-making body, giving young leaders the opportunity to debate and draft resolutions on global health issues.
Add your support and your pledge to the map
Young people and people of all generations are invited to support the declaration on an interactive world map. Participants pin their location, confirm their support for the declaration, and share one personal commitment to reduce the health harms of plastics. Each pledge appears on the map, building a global picture of action ahead of the treaty negotiations and the World Health Assembly.
Add your pledge: padlet.com/WHOYouthCouncil/PlasticsHealth
“We had no say in growing up this way. We want the children being born now to be better protected than we are,” the declaration reads.