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Plastics are used across the economy and in diverse downstream sectors such as packaging, construction, transportation, healthcare, textiles, and electronics. Durable products, ranging from construction materials to medical devices make up nearly half of the global plastics market, while packaging products are the largest uses of single-use plastics. Some plastics contain chemicals that are considered to be harmful for health and the environment. Phthalates, poly-fluorinated chemicals, bisphenol A (BPA), brominated flame retardants and antimony trioxide are considered most harmful for

This document has been developed for officials in government who have a role in regulating lead paint, to provide them with concise technical information on the rationale and steps required to phase out lead paint. “Lead paint” or “lead-based paint” is paint to which one or more lead compounds have been intentionally added by the manufacturer to obtain specific characteristics. This document explains the health and economic importance of preventing lead exposure by establishing legally binding controls to stop the

Lead has toxic effects on almost all body systems and is especially harmful for children and pregnant women. Lead paint is an avoidable source of exposure to lead. “Lead paint” or “lead-based paint” is paint to which one or more lead compounds have been intentionally added by the manufacturer to obtain specific characteristics. One important way to prevent exposure is for countries to establish legally binding regulatory measures prohibiting the addition of lead to paint.This policy brief summarizes key information

It's time to regulate Highly Hazardous Pesticides!It won’t compromise agriculture, but it will save lives.This document was prepared by WHO under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) full sized project 9771: 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. WHO acknowledges the financial contribution of the Global Environment Facility for the development, editing and

Medicinal products are physiologically highly active substances that enter the water and soil, particularly through human and animal excretion. They are being detected in the environment to a greater and greater extent, often in concentrations that are not harmless to humans and other living organisms. The consumption of pharmaceuticals is increasing, mainly due to the aging of the population. Consequently, measures to reduce environmental pollution are therefore necessary.

The OECD releases the Revised Guidance Document 150 on Standardised Test Guidelines for Evaluating Chemicals for Endocrine Disruption originally published in 2012 and updated in 2018 to reflect new and updated OECD test guidelines, as well as reflect on scientific advances in the use of test methods and assessment of the endocrine activity of chemicals. The document is intended to provide guidance for evaluating chemical using standardised test guidelines. Specific objectives include providing a description of the OECD conceptual framework

Who is the course aimed at?Nature offers many solutions to reduce the impacts of disasters and climate change, such as protecting forests on steep slopes, maintaining sand dunes along coastline and wetlands to buffer excess rainwater. In this course, find out how people around the world are building resilience to disasters and climate change impacts through Nature-based Solutions.This course will help you understand how to apply these Nature-based Solutions that restore or protect natural or modified ecosystems and biodiversity and

This is one of the Life Cycle Initiative E-learning modules, with courses in English, French, Arabic and Spanish. This E-Learning Module Kit draws on materials from the Life Cycle Initiative and it is aimed at helping give all participants an overview of life cycle approaches while developing understanding as to how to assess the impacts of any given sustainability issue considering all of its life cycle stages. The module is also intended as a guide to which kind of LCT

ContextTo address the recognized deficiencies mentioned above, it’s essential to have a ‘chemicals ecosystem (SAICM ecosystem)’ in which relevant information can be shared transparently and easy to obtain. In this ‘chemicals ecosystem’, a holistic chemicals-information-sharing hub, serving as ‘database’ and ‘scanner’ on chemicals management, should be developed to provide connection on knowledge and information from a wide variety of sources and allow stakeholders to identify their gaps on the way towards the sound management of chemicals and waste. Last but