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Chemicals of concern (CoCs) contained in everyday products can have harmful impacts on human health and the environment. While chemical-related impacts can often occur during a product’s use or end-of-life, decisions influencing product ingredients are taken further upstream of the value chain. Action to address CoCs in products thus need to consider the entire value chain and impactful interventions need to be made at upstream stages to protect human health and the environment from chemical pollution. UNEP is working on

Technological development has made electrical and electronic equipment (EEE1) essential parts of contemporary life and indispensable products in today’s societies. Information technology (IT) combined with the technological advances in recent decades, has resulted in EEE having a great influence on the daily life of consumers in aspects such as health, safety, knowledge, comfort information, among others. The global consumption of electronics is growing 2.5 million metric tons per year (Forti, Baldé, Kuehr, & Bel, 2020), because technology increases the living

This document has been developed within the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project ID: 9771 on Global Best Practices on Emerging Chemical Policy Issues of Concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). This project is funded by the GEF, implemented by UNEP and executed by the SAICM Secretariat.Under the project, UNEP is partnering with Universidad El Bosque to develop a Regional Electronics Study and Circularity Roadmap in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Region

WHO launched the first comprehensive publication on e-waste, entitled ‘Children and digital dumpsites: e-waste exposure and child health’. The soaring global popularity of electronic and electrical devices, from computers to cell phones to heavy appliances, combined with ineffective waste management and disposal, is triggering a crisis of e-waste health risks to which millions of children, as well as women of childbearing age, are exposed.Informal processing of e-waste through open burning, heating and acid leaching (using cyanide salt, nitric acid or

The report examines the class approach for PFAS as it applies to the textile sector, which covers a wide variety of consumer products and connects two important issues covered in the SAICM context. The textile sector is an appropriate choice given the environmental significance of the sector and the scope of PFAS used within it. Both the quantity of PFAS in use and the variety of uses make this sector a priority for action. Furthermore, the nature of the sector—with

This course will help the participants to understand why and how to manage e-waste in an environmentally sound manner and how action on e-waste could be taken in their own life, business, or organization.The aims of the course are to:Show how sound management of e-waste can help reduce GHG emissions, mitigate climate change and prevent hazards to health and the environment in accordance with the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm conventions;Share best practices, technological innovations, and sustainable e-waste recovery and inclusive

Have you ever noticed how many chemicals shape people’s daily lives? They keep homes sparkling clean, boost food production, and are included in virtually all manufactured goods surrounding you right now. Chemicals drive the economy but as we produce more than ever before, they have to deliver their benefits without damaging our health and environment.Toxic lead paint for example is still used in many regions of the world and Highly hazardous pesticides continue to poison agricultural workers and contaminate the