CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said industry and government can work together to reduce chronic diseases.

Kennedy was in Charlotte on Wednesday to address a conference on chemicals and plastics and their effect on health.

“Of course, we all have our differences, but something greater unites us, and that’s a concern for our children and for our grandchildren,” Kennedy told business leaders, scientists and policymakers gathered on the second day of the invitation-only Chemicals of Concern Policy Summit at the Atlantic Packaging Solution Center on Steele Creek Road. 

Kennedy said one of factors in what he called an epidemic of chronic diseases is microplastics, tiny bits of plastic that pollute the environment and are thought to pose risks to the food chain and human health. 

“Microplastics from food and food production assembly lines and packaging don’t only end up on our food, they also contaminate our soil, our water, our oceans, and from there they re-enter the food supply,” Kennedy told the gathering.

He said he plans to address some of the causes of chronic diseases by revising FDA reviews of food contact chemicals and implementing a National Toxicity Program.

“We’re going to start considering cumulative and a mixture of facts, when we test the safety of chemicals in food, including all direct and indirect food additives,” Kennedy said, urging packaging industry leaders and scientists to join the effort.

“I want to ask for your alliance, I want you to take the initiative to clean up our food supply, not because you have to, but because you care,” he said.

The two-day summit organized by the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network aimed to bring together policymakers, business representatives and nongovernmental organizations to look at chemical regulation and plastic alternatives.

Kennedy earlier this week announced plans to phase out the use of petroleum-based dyes in foods and medications. He said studies have linked synthetic dyes to hyperactivity, diabetes, obesity and other diseases in children.