GENEVA, 15 May – The world
has taken significant steps this week towards
ensuring that chemicals are produced, used
and disposed of as safely as possible. The
second International Conference on Chemicals
Management – ICCM2 – which ends today, has
made progress in several key areas and has
defined its priorities for future work.
Achim Steiner, Executive
Director of the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), who was at the high-level segment
of the conference, said: "Reaping the
benefits that chemicals offer to a modern
society while reducing their potential for
harm to the lowest level possible is a task
for everyone – governments, international
agencies like UNEP and many others, non-governmental
organisations, and scientists. SAICM this
week really has proved its worth as the
one worldwide forum which brings together
the people who can make change happen. I
am particularly encouraged at the way it
has focussed attention on the four emerging
issues – nanotechnology, e-waste, chemicals
in everyday products, and lead in paint
– because that will encourage us all to
work harder to find some answers."
Conference president
is Dr Ivan Erzen of Slovenia said: "This
is a unique and comprehensive effort to
address chemicals issues holistically, bringing
all concerned actors and stakeholders to
one table, with equal rights of participation
and negotiation. The inclusion of all sectors,
whether private or public, helps us to better
understand our respective concerns and interests.
SAICM is uniquely equipped to facilitate
a dialogue between Governments, intergovernmental
organizations, industry, non-governmental
organizations and civil society."
The ICCM is the governing
body of the Strategic Approach to International
Chemicals Management, SAICM, which is part
of UNEP. The co-ordinator of the SAICM secretariat,
Matthew Gubb, said: "The Conference
has also considered how to ensure that sufficient
resources are available to give meaning
to the Strategic Approach in developing
countries. SAICM has already been successful
with its Quick Start Programme, a start-up
trust fund which is currently running projects
worth USD 20 million in close to 80 countries."
He added that "the Conference considered
that more efforts were necessary to achieve
the goal of minimizing the risks of chemicals
to human health and the environment."
Apart from its work
on the emerging issues (see Notes to Editors),
ICCM2 held two high-level round-tables,
one on finance and the other on public health,
the environment and chemicals management.
Concrete results from
the conference, attended by almost 800 delegates,
are expected in relation to the consideration
of emerging issues, the linkages between
health as well as sustainable development
and chemicals management, and the financing
of sound chemicals management.
Notes to Editors:
SAICM's Four Emerging
Issues In 2009 SAICM has chosen four topics
as emerging policy issues:
- nanotechnology and
manufactured nanomaterials
- chemicals in products
- electronic waste
- lead in paint.
A working definition
is that each is "an issue involving
the production, distribution and use of
chemicals which has not yet been generally
recognised or sufficiently addressed but
which may have significant adverse effects
on human beings and/or the environment".
Nanotechnology is about
developing very small objects, typically
at a scale of a millionth of a millimetre.
One nanometre is about 1/50,000th the width
of a human hair. First-generation nanotechnology
is already on the market in products such
as paints, coatings and cosmetics, medical
appliances and diagnostic tools, clothing,
household appliances, food packaging, plastics
and fuel catalysts.
Examples include:
- improved solar collectors
and wind turbines
- better batteries
- replacements for highly
polluting brominated flame retardants
- fuel additives and
energy savers
- the provision of clean
water.
But inhaling minute
particles can damage the lungs, arteries
and the entire cardio-vascular system. Are
nanotech products similarly damaging? And
what happens when they break down, or interact
with other substances? Can nanoparticles
penetrate the skin, or cross the blood-brain
barrier? Will they distort commodity markets,
disrupt trade and destroy jobs? The potential
for nanotechnology to widen existing economic
gaps is significant.
Chemicals in Products
- this category can be understood as "chemicals
in products where you might not expect to
find them". We expect to find chemicals
developed by humans in pesticides and pharmaceuticals,
for example, but we may forget that they
are also in tables, books, clothes and shoes.
Particularly vulnerable groups may face
heightened risks. These can include children
at all stages of development, including
before birth. Sometimes the risks can be
substantial, as from lead in jewellery,
and phthalates in plastics. Historically,
reducing chemical risks has concentrated
on releases during manufacturing. But we
now realise that dangerous substances may
also be released from products during use,
and at the end of their useful lives.
Electronic Waste is
known also as e-waste or Waste Electrical
and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). It comes
from machines like fridges, air conditioners,
microwave ovens, fluorescent light bulbs,
washing machines, computers, mobile telephones,
TVs and stereo equipment. The high rate
of obsolescence in many of these means a
fast turnover and a huge waste stream, much
of which is exported from developed to developing
countries, sometimes for further use as
second-hand equipment and sometimes as end-of-life
waste. E-waste contains persistent, bio-accumulative
and hazardous (PBT) substances like heavy
metals (lead, nickel, chromium, mercury)
and organic pollutants like polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) and brominated flame retardants
(BFRs). Many developing countries do not
have the infrastructure to manage e-waste
properly, or an effective regulatory framework.
Nor do many people realise how dangerous
the wastes can be.
Lead in Paint. No level
of exposure to lead is considered safe.
It is recognised today as one of the twenty
leading risk factors contributing to the
global burden of disease. Eliminating lead
exposure from gasoline has been one of the
most significant environment health improvements
in recent times. But lead-containing products
are still widely made and sold across much
of the developing world. Lead in paint is
the second largest source of exposure to
lead following exposure from gasoline. Paint
containing lead is used in infrastructure
like bridges, industry (car parts) and for
marine uses, as well as domestically. The
evidence of neurological damage, especially
to children (whose intelligence can be impaired)
and to workers in the lead industry is beyond
doubt. Adults can suffer renal and cardiovascular
damage. Some studies suggest a link to behavioural
problems as well. Lead damage is irreversible,
and its effects appear to persist into adolescence
and adulthood. House dust is the commonest
way in which children are harmed by lead
in paint. The lead remains a risk for many
years after the paint has been used. Small
intelligence changes in an individual child
can have substantial impacts on an entire
population.
About SAICM:
The Strategic Approach
to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)
is a policy framework. SAICM has as its
overall objective the achievement of the
sound management of chemicals throughout
their life cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals
are produced and used in ways that minimize
significant adverse impacts on human health
and the environment. This "2020 goal"
was adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in 2002 as part of the Johannesburg
Plan of Implementation.
SAICM comprises the
Dubai Declaration on International Chemicals
Management, expressing high-level political
commitment to SAICM, and an Overarching
Policy Strategy which sets out its scope,
needs, objectives, financial considerations,
underlying principles and approaches and
implementation and review arrangements.
Objectives are grouped under five themes:
risk reduction; knowledge and information;
governance; capacity-building and technical
cooperation; and illegal international traffic.
The Declaration and
Strategy are accompanied by a Global Plan
of Action, a working tool and guidance document
to support implementation of SAICM and other
relevant international initiatives.
SAICM media adviser, Alex Kirby.
After ICCM2 ends please
contact the UNEP Spokesperson/Head of Media,
Nick Nuttall, Office of the Executive Director
