Key facts
- Globally, 2 million lives and 53 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were lost in 2019 exposure to selected chemicals, the health effects of which are well estimated In 2019, in the WHO European Region, 269 500 deaths were attributable to exposure to several selected chemicals or groups of chemicals such as lead, pesticides, occupational carcinogens and occupational particles. Both globally and in the European Region, the burden of disease attributable to chemicals has been estimated for only a few types of chemical exposure. A lack of scientific evidence and data means the burden is underestimated.
- In the European Union (EU), 282 million tonnes of industrial chemicals were produced in 2017. Of these, 28%, or 75 million tonnes, were hazardous to the environment, and 75%, or 209 million tonnes, were hazardous to health.
- Children are more vulnerable to the effects of exposure to chemicals. Of the global burden of disease attributable to environmental exposures, expressed in DALYs, 54% is borne by children under the age of 15. In addition, children have no political power to protect their rights to live in a safe environment.
- Worldwide, unintentional poisonings are estimated to cause 193 000 deaths annually, the majority of which are in children and young adults.
- Within the EU, more than 1.8 million children are born annually with methylmercury exposures above the adjusted safety limit of 0.58 μg/g in hair. A recent analysis estimated the costs of the burden of disease attributable to endocrine-disrupting chemicals at €157 billion a year.
- Despite substantial progress in regulating chemicals, urgent actions are needed to protect populations, especially children at early stages of development, to improve health prospects throughout life.
Overview
The number of chemicals, including those harmful to human health, is large and growing. However, through appropriate management, the risks can be reduced. People are exposed to multiple chemicals from the environment, drinking water, food and consumer products daily, and in their workplaces. Chemicals can have acute and chronic effects and impact the systems of an organism – respiratory, reproductive, cardiovascular, urinary, nervous, immune and metabolic. They can also cause allergies and cancer.
There is growing recognition of the profound and long-lasting effects of exposure to toxic environmental agents in early life, which can lead to developing diseases later and even – as in the case of exposure to certain chemicals at critical life stages – have impacts across generations.
WHO role
WHO, through its European Centre for Environment and Health (WHO ECEH), encourages Member States to identify priorities in chemical safety based on an analysis of the situation at the national level. To facilitate action, WHO ECEH works on the following:
- ensuring mainstreaming of sound chemicals management with national sustainable development and health agendas;
- providing technical support and assisting countries in building national capacity to assess, minimize and prevent, if possible, health risks posed by hazardous chemicals and to ensure health systems’ preparedness and response to existing and emerging chemical threats in everyday life and during chemical emergencies;
- promoting the development of national chemicals roadmaps to strengthen the involvement of the health sector in chemicals management and ensure multistakeholder and multisectoral cooperation and coordination;
- raising awareness on the special needs for protection of the most vulnerable populations, especially children and pregnant women;
- collecting and disseminating knowledge to better illuminate the impact of chemicals on human health;
- facilitating implementation of the international legally binding and voluntary chemical agreements (the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Minamata conventions, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management) and developing relevant policies to ensure that human health and the health sector’s role are adequately considered and addressed;
- developing tools and guidance to support countries’ efforts towards sound chemical management and reducing the burden of disease attributable to chemicals;
- educating health-care and public health professionals, medical and other allied students, and raising awareness among the general public on prevention and early diagnosis of hazardous effects of chemicals.