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The Global Chemicals Outlook II – From Legacies to Innovative Solutions: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, mandated by the UN Environment Assembly in 2016, seeks to alert policymakers and other stakeholders to the critical role of the sound management of chemicals and waste in sustainable development. It takes stock of global trends as well as progress made and gaps in achieving the global goal to minimize the adverse impacts from chemicals and waste by 2020. The Global Chemicals

On International Women’s Day, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury launched a video on how women are more negatively impacted by mercury and what needs to be done to better protect, support and promote gender equality. watch the videoThe Minamata Convention tackles mercury throughout its entire life cycle, fighting gender issues every step of the way. This includes supporting gender-specific trainings and helping implement National Action Plans with a gender perspective -- with special focus on the problem

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

Perflourinated Chemicals (PFCs) are the key ingredient in many stain, water and grease repellent coatings that make outdoor jackets water tight and frying pans non sticky. These chemicals consist of long molecules that contain carbon chains surrounded by fluorine. That bond between carbon and fluorine is incredibly tight. They interact so strongly with each other that the normal, inter-molecular forces, that cause substances to stick to each other, don’t stand a chance.While some types of PFCs are either safe or

Pharmaceuticals are chemicals we specifically design to act on living cells. They regulate, in organisms, hormonal balance and the way it metabolizes its nutrients. Pharmaceuticals even change the way signals travel between cells. In order to work, many drugs have to resist the stomach’s acid environment, so the compounds can reach their destination inside the body. That’s why they are formulated to degrade very slowly or not at all. When active pharmaceuticals pass through our bodies and enter the environment

We use a wide variety of chemical compounds to prevent living organisms from damaging crops and spreading diseases like malaria. These compounds are collectively termed pesticides. These days the majority of pesticides have low to moderate acute toxicity. But despite their many positive developments, there remain a small but significant group of Highly Hazardous Pesticides that cause illness and environmental damage.Not only because they are very toxic, but also because they remain active for a long time after being released

Microplastic contamination of the marine environment is widespread, but the extent to which the marine food web is contaminated is not yet known. The aims of this study were to go beyond visual identification techniques and develop and apply a simple seafood sample cleanup, extraction, and quantitative analysis method using pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry to improve the detection of plastic contamination.This method allows the identification and quantification of polystyrene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, and poly (methyl methacrylate) in the

Video animation explaining why mercury and, in particular, mercury in skin lightening products is dangerous to health and the need for countries to take action to ban this source of exposure.

We present a list of Chemicals of Concern (CoCs) in plastic toys. We started from available studies reporting chemical composition of toys to group plastic materials, as well as to gather mass fractions and function of chemicals in these materials. Chemical emissions from plastic toys and subsequent human exposures were then estimated using a series of models and a coupled near-field and far-field exposure assessment framework. Comparing human doses with reference doses shows high Hazard Quotients of up to 387

Over the past decade a great amount of interest has arisen regarding the occurrence and fate of trace organic contaminants in the aquatic environment. Of particular concern are human hormones and pharmaceuticals, many of which are ubiquitous contaminants in conventional municipal wastewater treatment plant effluents when measured with ng/L detection limits. As analytical procedures and bioassay techniques become more readily available and increasingly sensitive, new contaminants will be discovered. The presence or absence of any chemical in a wastewater effluent