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AbstractThe world faces an increasing need to phase out harmful chemicals and design sustainable alternatives across various consumer products and industrial applications. Alternatives assessment is an emerging field focusing on identifying viable solutions to substitute harmful chemicals. However, current methods fail to consider trade-offs from human and ecosystem exposures, and from impacts associated with chemical supply chains and product life cycles. To close this gap, we propose a life cycle based alternatives assessment (LCAA) framework for consistently integrating quantitative exposure

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) substantially cost society as a result of increases in disease and disability but—unlike other toxicant classes such as carcinogens—have yet to be codified into regulations as a hazard category.This Series paper examines economic, regulatory, and policy approaches to limit human EDC exposures and describes potential improvements. In the EU, general principles for EDCs call for minimisation of human exposure, identification as substances of very high concern, and ban on use in pesticides. In the USA, screening and

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

This paper examines one specific theme of the democracy-environment interface of environmental governance: the participation of stakeholders in environmental policy formulation and implementation.After a short discussion of environmental governance, its main functions and challenges, the paper addresses the issue of stakeholder participation and the claim of a “democratic deficit” in international environmental governance. It stresses that while stakeholder involvement does not increase the democratic legitimacy, it may nevertheless increase the quality and through this the legitimacy of environmental policy processes

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

Earth is running out of resources needed for manufacturing materials such as chemicals, minerals, and petroleum. Thus, these components are available only at increasing economic and environmental costs. As an important contribution to a sustainable future, chemistry and its products must be adapted to a circular economy (CE)—a system aimed at eliminating waste, circulating and recycling products, and saving resources and the environment.Nearly 140,000 industrial chemicals are marketed worldwide, and new chemicals are becoming more complex (e.g., stereochemistry, functional groups)

As the basis for managing the risks of chemical exposure, the Chemical Risk Assessment (CRA) process can impact a substantial part of the economy, the health of hundreds of millions of people, and the condition of the environment. However, the number of properly assessed chemicals falls short of societal needs due to a lack of experts for evaluation, interference of third party interests, and the sheer volume of potentially relevant information on the chemicals from disparate sources.In order to explore

This WHO policy brief presents the consequences of lead exposure on human health and details its toxicity in the body system explaining why it is important to reduce the use and releases of lead, and to reduce environmental and occupational exposures, particularly for children and women of childbearing age.The policy brief also lists the sources of lead releases and contamination in industrial process, drinking water and domestic sources. The brief also gives guidelines for tolerable intake levels of lead and

Since the global phase-out of leaded petrol, reports have suggested that lead exposure remains substantial or is increasing in some low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, few studies have attempted to systematically assess blood lead levels over the full range of LMICs. This study is aimed to describe values for blood lead level in LMICs.In this systematic review, PubMed was searched for studies published between Jan 1, 2010, and Oct 31, 2019, that reported blood lead levels in the 137