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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

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

The Special Programme has successfully processed three rounds of applications since its inception in 2015. The Programme is currently funding projects from 42 countries. You can explore the projects through our Projects Database.Use the tool below to discover more about projects that have been funded by the Special Programme. It provides an overview of the activities each project has been undertaking to implement the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, the Minamata Convention and SAICM. It also categorizes the objectives of

Chemical Entities of Biological Interest, also known as ChEBI is a chemical database and ontology of molecular entities focused on 'small' chemical compounds, that is part of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) effort at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).The term "molecular entity" refers to any "constitutionally or isotopically distinct atom, molecule, ion, ion pair, radical, radical ion, complex, conformer, etc., identifiable as a separately distinguishable entity". The molecular entities in question are either products of nature or synthetic products which

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

The database of IOMC activities in countries provides an overview of where individual IOMC organizations are working on chemicals issues in countries.The entries relate to country-specific activities and not normative or general activities applicable to many countries, such as the development of guidelines. Information from the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions is included as the Secretariat is an observer to the IOMC.

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