According to a new UN Environment Programme report, countries may fail to meet the internationally agreed goal to minimize the adverse impacts of chemicals and waste by 2020.
The chemical industry is an important backbone of various downstream industry sectors such as electronics, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, construction, textiles, transportation and energy. It supplies raw materials, feedstocks and specialty chemicals to each of these sectors. Despite commitments to maximize the benefits and minimize the impacts of the chemicals industry, hazardous chemicals and waste continue to be released into the environment in large volumes. They are ubiquitous in air, water and soil, food and humans.
The World Health Organization estimates that 125 million people in the world are exposed to asbestos in the workplace and 107,000 die each year due to diseases caused by occupational exposure to asbestos. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials have been reported to be major sources of indoor chemical residues of substances such as Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, which have, for example, been linked to asthma, according to studies authored by Jaakkola and Knight in 2008 and Kanchongkittiphon et al. in 2015.
The Chinese government partnered with UN Environment in 2018 to support the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements in Asia, by building the capacity of the country’s customs officials.
Through the partnership, UN Environment aims to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders in Asia in sound chemicals management by supporting the development of tools that help mitigate chemicals and waste pollution. This collaboration will also promote better understanding of safe and sustainable alternatives to the new chemicals listed under the multilateral environmental agreements and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, while meeting the requirements of chemicals and waste conventions and the Sustainable Development Goal 12.4, which requires countries to achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and wastes by 2020, and that their release to air, water and soil is significantly reduced to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment). In the year 2018, the Chinese government approved a new plan to help tackle pollution threats and improve waste management. The government came up with new mechanisms and policies which include tax exemptions to encourage a comprehensive utilization of waste.
Just recently, Chinese scientists from the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a new composite that can effectively soak up mercury in wastewater. The tool is a novel polymer-based mercury known as High Performance Flash-Chromatography (HPFC), which has demonstrated ultra-high adsorbent capacity towards the removal of mercury ions in water.
As a result of their partnership with UN Environment, Asian countries have started to implement control measures over new chemicals which are regulated or are to be governed under the chemicals and waste multilateral environmental agreements. Chinese stakeholders have also enhanced their understanding and management of chemicals under the multilateral environmental agreements and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, including provision of knowledge to decision makers on relevant scientific literature, including publications.
For more information, please contact: Haddy.Guisse [at]un.org I Niamh.Brannigan[at]un.org I Catherine.Abuto[at]un.org
