Veronica Herrera, professor of urban planning at UCLA Luskin, published a guest op-ed for CalMatters analyzing a recent chemical emergency in Garden Grove, California, where a cracked storage tank at a GKN Aerospace facility containing methyl methacrylate led to large-scale evacuations.

Herrera argues that the incident exposes serious vulnerabilities in the plastics manufacturing supply chain, writing that “California communities are vulnerable to dangerous accidents tied to the plastics supply chain.” She explains that chemicals like methyl methacrylate are derived from oil and gas and are widely used in producing acrylic plastics, but they are also toxic, flammable and capable of causing long-term environmental and health harm if released.

She places the Garden Grove event within a broader national pattern of industrial accidents involving plastics-related chemical facilities. Drawing on research from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, Herrera highlights that California contains more than 800 plastics-related facilities, many concentrated in densely populated regions such as Greater Los Angeles.

She concludes that “the proximity of these plastics-chemical plants to densely populated areas shows the significant health risks of our dependence on plastics. It’s putting us all at risk,” calling for stronger oversight of hazardous facilities and a reduction in dependence on plastics production to better protect public health and surrounding communities.