HoldsUp

Shanna Swan

Dr. Shanna Swan is a researcher specializing in environmental health and epidemiology. Her published work focuses on the effects of environmental chemical exposures, such as phthalates and plastics, on fertility, pregnancy, and fetal development. Additionally, her research examines associations between prenatal maternal factors and exposures with childhood health outcomes, including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and asthma.

28 claims checked on air: 3 context 1 overstated 23 supported 1 unverified

What they said on air - overstated

4 citing their own research

0:39:14overstatedvery lowtheir own paperMicroplastics Are Inside Your Body Right Now — Here's What T

A 3-month intervention reducing plastic chemical exposures lowered urinary metabolite levels to non-detectable levels and improved semen parameters in infertile couples.

"To non-detect from quite high levels, and that's shown in the film. And we also published a paper uh containing a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal with these data. And um so their levels went down... Yes. Their semen parameters changed." (said at 0:39:14)

The peer-reviewed study associated with the film "The Plastic Detox" was published as an uncontrolled pilot study in five subfertile couples (PMID 41893525). While the authors reported directional reductions in urinary plastic biomarkers (such as bisphenol A, MBP, and MBzP) and descriptive upward trends in semen parameters over the 3-month intervention, claiming that levels fell to non-detectable levels overstates the reported findings (which were directional reductions). Furthermore, because the study was a tiny uncontrolled pilot feasibility study, the observed changes cannot prove efficacy.

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