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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

Video animation explaining why lead and, in particular, lead paint is harmful to children and the need for countries to take action to stop this source of exposure.

Curtain raising video of the third meeting of the intersessional process held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1 to 4 October 2019. Regional meetings and technical briefings took place on 30 September 2019. These meetings support stakeholders in their efforts to elaborate the future arrangements of the Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 for consideration and adoption at the next session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5)

We live in a chemical world. Almost everything we touch contains chemicals.

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

Pharmaceuticals in the environment are a global problem – more than 600 pharmaceuticals and their metabolites have been found in the environment worldwide.They enter the environment (through water, soil, sludge, and organisms) at all stages of their life cycle and can end up in drinking water, and accumulate in fish, vegetables, and livestock.This aim of the Safer Pharma campaign is to protect the environment from pharmaceutical pollution at all stage of their life cycle.The campaign is coordinated by Health Care

SAICM - International Conference on Chemicals Management - Curtain raiser from UN Environment on Vimeo.