Experts urge plastic limit for lateral flow tests

Social scientists at Edinburgh and biomedical engineering researchers at Heriot-Watt are calling for urgent action to limit how much plastic is used in single use lateral flow tests.  

Alice Street, Professor of Anthropology and Health, worked with Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Professor in Microfluidic Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, to explore possibilities for redesigning lateral flow tests to make them more sustainable. 

Comparing tests

Together with Marie-Louise Wöhrle, a PhD student in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh and the lead author on the study, they dismantled, weighed and compared 21 different Covid-19 testing kits. 

The weight of plastic varied from six grams to almost 40 grams per individual test.

They found existing guidance on environmental standards for diagnostics are often vague and unambitious. For example, the WHO do not issue guidance to industry on packaging weight or the use of sustainable materials in point-of-care test kits.

Plastic Usage

The researchers urge setting plastic usage limits in test kit manufacturing, such as a limit of four grams of plastic in the lateral flow tests cassettes – which the study showed was the average.

It is estimated more than two billion lateral flow tests are manufactured annually.

Around 16,000 tonnes of plastics are produced globally for rapid testing every year.

Lateral flow tests entered the public consciousness during the Covid pandemic but are used to identify a range of illnesses and conditions.

Very few of the plastics used in medical testing are recycled – partly because of potential contamination – and most of it is sent to incineration or landfill.

Researchers found this was an acute issue in certain parts of the world.

Global health

Global health efforts to increase access to diagnostic services through the development and deployment of single-use diagnostic devices was placing a waste burden on health systems in low-and middle-income countries, experts said. 

In regions that lack proper disposal facilities, used test cassettes often end up in landfills and waterways or are openly burned, releasing pollutants. Even in developed nations, recycling these materials remains rare.

The researchers urge policymakers, manufacturers and global health organisations - including WHO, FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), and PATH (a charity specialising in innovative technologies to address global health inequities) - to integrate environmental sustainability guidance in funding, developing, procuring and regulating test kits.

By establishing sustainability benchmarks, they believe the industry can continue to provide essential diagnostics while reducing plastic waste.

Reducing waste

A study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO), is based on research from the DIADEV project – Investigating the Design and Use of Diagnostic Devices in Global Health.

DIADEV is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

As part of the research the team at Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute in Health and Care Technologies have produced five prototype devices made from a range of emerging plastic materials.

Future research from a new Wellcome Trust funded Discovery Award will involve deconstructing a range of single-use medical devices to explore the waste and pollution they generate and opportunities for redesign.

Related links

Image credit - Bildobjektiv via Getty Images