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Two international Conventions from the International Labor Organization (ILO; C162 Asbestos Convention) and the UN (Basel Convention) offer governments guidelines for achieving a total asbestos ban policy, but the long-term effect of these Conventions on policy implementation remains unknown. This study assessed data on asbestos bans in 108 countries and confirms that adoption of both the C162 Asbestos Convention and the Basel Convention facilitates countries in moving towards a total asbestos ban.

This webpage shows which countries around the world have implemented national asbestos bans.

This webpage summarises actions undertaken by the US Environmental Protection Agency to protect the public from exposure to asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). One of EPA’s priorities is to protect the public from adverse health effects of asbestos, a known carcinogen.

This review focuses on the world’s first process for producing an aromatic polycarbonate (PC) using CO2 as starting material. The process is an example of green and sustainable chemistry as previous methods of producing PC use not only highly toxic and corrosive phosgene made from CO and Cl2 as a monomer, but also very large amounts of CH2Cl2 and water.

The mission of the Chemical Footprint Project is to transform global chemical use by measuring and disclosing data on business progress to safer chemicals. It provides a tool for benchmarking companies as they select safer alternatives and reduce their use of chemicals of high concern. CFP provides guidance on chemical footprinting, which is the process of benchmarking progress away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. 

This study aims to predict human exposure to pollutants and heating load in buildings by developing a numerical model coupling heat and chemical transfers in the building envelope. The study characterizes the effect of temperature and air renewal rate on chemical emissions from building materials and human exposure. The results show that increasing indoor temperature by 10°C doubles the maximum indoor air concentration of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, leading to increased human exposure. The study also finds that higher air renewal rates lead to smaller intake fractions of pollutants from building materials. The study highlights the need to guide early design choices towards a good compromise between human indoor exposure and heating load, especially with the increasing emphasis on energy-efficient building design.

This is a pre-print manuscript pending publication in open access scientific journals.

This document has been developed within the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project ID: 9771 on Global Best Practices on Emerging Chemical Policy Issues of Concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).

Chemical management and risk assessment frameworks rely on regulatory toxicity values, but these are available for only a small fraction of commercialized chemicals due to limited available data. To address this gap, the study aims to expand the coverage of chemicals for which toxicity values can be derived by determining surrogate inhalation route points of departure (PODs) and corresponding toxicity values where regulatory assessments are lacking. In vivo data from the U.S. EPA's Toxicity Value Database were curated and selected, and effect values were adjusted to chronic human equivalent benchmark concentrations (BMC_h) using the WHO/IPCS framework. Chemical-specific PODs are crucial for evaluating potential risks and toxicological impacts from chemical exposures, and the statistically derived BMCL or LOAEC/NOAEC are typically used as candidate PODs for toxicity value derivation.

This is a pre-print manuscript pending publication in open access scientific journals.

This document has been developed within the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project ID: 9771 on Global Best Practices on Emerging Chemical Policy Issues of Concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).

The study examines the near-field exposures and health risks of organic chemicals in interior paints commonly used in Sri Lanka. The researchers developed mass balance-based and high-throughput models to predict chemical emissions during wet and dry phases and integrated these models into the USEtox model for health risk assessment. The models accurately predicted indoor air concentrations and drying time. They found that inhalation is the primary exposure pathway, and exposure is much higher for painters during application than for household members during use. The study identified chemicals of concern and recommended the use of protective equipment for painters and increasing air ventilation rates to reduce exposure for household members.

This is a pre-print manuscript pending publication in open access scientific journals.

This document has been developed within the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project ID: 9771 on Global Best Practices on Emerging Chemical Policy Issues of Concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).