CHEMICAL POLLUTION

Pollution by chemicals is seriously and increasingly harming nature. We hear about climate change all the time and about the disgusting sewage releases to our waterways and onto our beaches which were so clean before Brexit but, undeservedly, a long way down in the list of commonly reported environmental problems is pollution by industrial chemicals. I say “undeservedly” because this is a severe and disturbing issue, arguably as serious as climate change, that needs much more publicity and far greater control. I am talking about “novel entities” in particular: the chemicals of which there are over 100,000,000 in current circulation, including the infamous PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), many of the effects of which, in terms of adverse environmental impact and human health, are unknown, just not recognised and barely acted upon. There is a useful but disturbing explanatory downloadable paper[1] with case studies on this written by Baldock, Grassi, Willis & Manili for Planet Tracker in September last year which is well worth a read.

Some of the main points in the paper are:

This chemical pollution is “a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change”;

• The safe boundaries to planetary ecosystems are being breached or are at critical level and “the Earth is well outside a safe operating space for humanity” (my emphasis)[2];
• The consumption and production of these novel entities is increasing but many have not been rigorously studied for safety or human/environmental impacts;
• We do not know the extent of the risks and effects they are having.

[1] https://planet-tracker.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Novel-Entities.pdf

[2] See also https://ieeb.fundacion-biodiversidad.es/sites/default/files/2024_planetaryhealthcheck.pdf.  

Report 2024. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany.

[3] https://short-url.org/1b4mp