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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

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

Many countries and regions have set up regulatory and policy frameworks to achieve sound chemicals and waste management. In addition to national and regional efforts, the international community has taken concerted joint actions to address specific issues of concern, including chemicals that can be transported over long distances by wind and water, are transported through global trade in resources, products and waste, or are used or are present in many countries.Substantial progress has been made by the international community, including

Chemicals are widely used in daily life. They have a unique importance in the health-care sector, where they are used as disinfectants, cleaners, laboratory re­agents, sterilants, pesticides, medicines and pharma­ceuticals and in medical devices and equipment. The hazards of these chemicals are not well understood by health professionals nor incorporated into procure­ment decisions.To minimize these hazards, the health sector has been taking steps to promote and implement sustainable healthcare within their institutions and to collaborate externally with suppliers and manufactures

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) defines single use plastic products as “an umbrella term for different types of products that are typically used once before being thrown away or recycled” (UNEP 2018), which includes food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups, cutlery and shopping bags. It has been estimated that about 100-150 million tonnes of plastics are produced for single use products and about 8 million tonnes of plastics are dumped into the oceans every year (Plastics Oceans 2019)There is a need

Better waste management offers great potential to help us meet the sustainability challenges ahead. Targeting decision-makers and many other inter-connected sectors, the Global Waste Management Outlook (GWMO) was launched at the World Congress of The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) in Belgium on 7 September, 2015 . The publication also contains two summary documents, making the information concise and accessible.Developed by UNEP in collaboration with ISWA in response to the UNEP Governing Council request of February 2013, its goal was

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

This novel publication provides an overview of the knowledge gap and enforcement challenges in the illegal trade of toxic, hazardous and severely restricted chemicals, as well as in non-existing or low areas of chemical regulations.Chemicals surround us in our daily lives providing benefit to people and society. However, chemicals can contaminate all components of ecosystems and are implicated in a range of acute and chronic health problems. Though a range of guidelines now govern the trade in chemicals, many remain