Average" consumption rates hide significant gender and class differences at both the high and low ends of "average" consumption (Oxfam 2015, UNEP 2012, WHO 2010, Pellow 2007, Ringquist 2005). Inequalities occur along several social axes, with women facing greater risks than men, rural communities often more exposed than urban ones, and groups marginalized because of race, ethnicity or other factors likely to be disproportionately affected (Oxfam 2015). Poverty is an environmental threat-multiplier and, in most places, women are more likely than men to live in extreme poverty (UN 2015, UNDP 2015, USAID 2015, UNDP n.d.). From 1950 to 2012 global plastics growth averaged 8.7% per year, rising from 1.7 million tons to the nearly 300 million tons of 2015 (The Globalist 2015). Plastics and synthetic chemicals have become globally ubiquitous: once they have made their way into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, they also end up in our bodies.