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A variety of chemical substances used in plastic production may be released throughout the entire life cycle of the plastic, posing risks to human health, the environment, and recycling systems. Only a limited number of these substances have been widely studied. 

This article from Helene Wiesinger, Zhanyun Wang and Stefanie Hellweg systematically investigates plastic monomers, additives, and processing aids on the global market based on a review of 63 industrial, scientific, and regulatory data sources. In total, it identifies more than 10,000 relevant substances and categorizes them based on substance types, use patterns, and hazard classifications wherever possible. 

The European Commission (EC) developed a framework for the definition of criteria for SSbD chemicals and materials to steer innovation towards the green industrial transition, foster substitution or minimisation of the production and use of substances of concern, and minimize impact on human health, climate and the environment.

The framework is composed of two components: a (re)design phase in which design guiding principles and indicators are proposed to support the design of chemicals and materials, and a safety and sustainability assessment phase in which the safety and environmental sustainability of the chemical/ material are assessed. Hence, the framework encompasses both safety and sustainability assessment, conducted by means of life cycle assessment and it represents the backbone of the EC recommendations on SSBD released in December 2022. This report presents the application of the SSBD framework to an illustrative case study in order to pave the way for further refinements thereof, towards wider application in support to innovation for sustainability.

The health risks associated with living in houses insulated with asbestos are unknown. Loose-fill asbestos was used to insulate some houses in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). This study published in The Lancet compared the incidence of mesothelioma and other cancers in residents of the ACT who did and did not live in these houses.

Abstract: Based on a review of 2012 and 2016 data in the Nordic chemical database, SPIN, this paper is an assessment of the usage of REACH’s Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and Denmark’s List over Undesirable Substances (LOUS) chemicals in the building industry in Denmark. The paper is a status update of the 2016 Danish Environmental Agency’s report of the usage of hazardous substances in sustainable buildings, based on 2012 data from SPIN. The analysis focuses on change in tonnage of usage of chemicals found in twelve different construction product categories in SPIN, crosschecked with substances from the SVHC and the LOUS lists. The usage of some hazardous substances in certain usage categories has reduced from 2012 to 2016.

There is an overall trend indicating an increase of undesirable chemical in construction articles and preparations, which poses serious challenges for a functioning circular built environment. Findings indicate which construction categories and which chemicals are of particular concern for the current construction market in Denmark. The results underscore the essential need for transparency in building product content, in order for design professionals and contractors to make decisions that support the future use of the material or building element.

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. 

Environmental research is detecting ever more pharmaceutical residues in the aquatic environment as analytical methods become increasingly sensitive. The physicochemical properties of some active substances suggest an accumulation in sediment, suspended matter and biota. Hence, these matrices could be interesting alternative matrices for monitoring of pharmaceutical residues in surface waters. Against this background, modern analytical detection methods for different matrices from water to sediment and suspended matter to biota (fish) were developed and published in 2019 (FKZ 3715 67 413). In the current project sampling concepts were combined with retrospective analyses. In this report, the results of the developed methods from investigations of water, sediment, suspended matter and biota samples from different locations and the German environmental specimen bank are presented in terms of occurrence and distribution.

Persistence is a hazard criterion for chemicals enshrined in chemical regulation worldwide. In this paper, we argue that the higher the persistence of a chemical, the greater the emphasis that it should be given in chemicals assessment and decision making. We provide case studies for three classes of highly persistent chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to exemplify problems unique to highly persistent chemicals, despite their otherwise diverse properties.