Contact
Ninja Reineke
(Senior Policy Officer, Chemicals)
WWF European Policy Office (EPO),
Brussels (BE)
T: +32 2 740 09 26
While no-one would deny that some chemicals bring significant benefits to society - through their use in healthcare for example - some others are unfortunately damaging wildlife and people, and we still don't know enough about their long-term effects.
Man-made chemicals are in use all around us, from pesticides to cosmetics, from baby bottles to computers: our 21st century society depends on them. During their manufacture and use, chemicals are released into the environment. They can travel vast distances by air or water and are absorbed by wildlife and humans through the skin or ingested in food and water.
By the end of the 1990s, some 100,000 chemicals had been registered in the EU with the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances, but very little is known about the toxicity of the majority of them. Only 14% of the highest production volume chemicals have enough publicly available data to do even the most basic safety assessment.
To ensure that there is no dangerous contamination, chemicals must be properly regulated and more safety information needs to be available. REACH, the new European Union chemicals regulation, is a modest step forward in helping to reduce the risk to wildlife and people, by identifying and phasing out the most harmful chemicals. WWF was intensively involved during the decision making process and is now closely scrutinising the preparation for implementation.
Harmful chemicals
WWF is particularly concerned about three types of chemicals in use today. These are:
• very persistent and highly bioaccumulative chemicals which break down slowly or not at all, and accumulate in wildlife and humans;
• endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which interfere with the hormone systems of animals and humans;
• chemicals which cause cancer, reproductive problems, or damage DNA
Impact on Wildlife
Hazardous man-made chemicals have contaminated the environment, and wildlife is known to be suffering.
Here are some examples of effects on wildlife:
Otters and mink - widespread declines of Great Lakes mink, Canadian otter and other species have been recorded in North America and western Europe. PCBs and dioxins are suspected, and studies of farmed and laboratory mink provide supporting evidence.
Dolphins – PFOS, classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a cancer-causing chemical, has been found in dolphins and tuna in the Mediterranean and in sea eagles and salmon in the Baltic.
Fish - Chemical pollution can cause hormone disruption. The best-known effect is the feminising of male fish, which start producing eggs in their testes.
Crustaceans - brominated flame retardants are highly toxic to crustaceans. They have also been found in sperm whales and, recently, in the eggs of peregrine falcons.
Surprisingly, animals in the Arctic can be subjected to very high levels of pollution, one reason being the fact that air and water currents carry contaminants from the south.
Human contamination
Up to 300 man-made chemicals have been found in humans. Human Health effects that have been associated with exposure to man-made chemicals include:
• for men: testicular cancer, undescended testicles, low sperm counts, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, work related asthma, workplace cancers
• for woman: breast cancer increase by 50% since 1971, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, work related asthma, workplace cancers
• for children: dramatic rise in childhood cancers, learning disabilities (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), weakening the immune system so more susceptible to common diseases, premature puberty.
While some of these effects are caused by DDT and PCBs that are now banned, many new chemicals with similar properties are on the market and their long-term effects are not yet known.
What to do
There are simple actions that everyone can take to reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals and protect wildlife from the toxic threat.
However stronger laws also need to be put in place. From 2003 until 2006 WWF carried out the DetoX campaign to make European citizens and decision makers aware of the shocking lack of safety information for the large majority of chemicals used in daily life.
This was done to strengthen the new proposed EU legislation REACH. WWF saw this as a unique opportunity to close the knowledge gap on chemicals and secure a safer management system for chemicals in Europe.
Man-made chemicals are in use all around us, from pesticides to cosmetics, from baby bottles to computers: our 21st century society depends on them. During their manufacture and use, chemicals are released into the environment. They can travel vast distances by air or water and are absorbed by wildlife and humans through the skin or ingested in food and water.
By the end of the 1990s, some 100,000 chemicals had been registered in the EU with the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances, but very little is known about the toxicity of the majority of them. Only 14% of the highest production volume chemicals have enough publicly available data to do even the most basic safety assessment.
To ensure that there is no dangerous contamination, chemicals must be properly regulated and more safety information needs to be available. REACH, the new European Union chemicals regulation, is a modest step forward in helping to reduce the risk to wildlife and people, by identifying and phasing out the most harmful chemicals. WWF was intensively involved during the decision making process and is now closely scrutinising the preparation for implementation.
Harmful chemicals
WWF is particularly concerned about three types of chemicals in use today. These are:
• very persistent and highly bioaccumulative chemicals which break down slowly or not at all, and accumulate in wildlife and humans;
• endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which interfere with the hormone systems of animals and humans;
• chemicals which cause cancer, reproductive problems, or damage DNA
Impact on Wildlife
Hazardous man-made chemicals have contaminated the environment, and wildlife is known to be suffering.
Here are some examples of effects on wildlife:
Otters and mink - widespread declines of Great Lakes mink, Canadian otter and other species have been recorded in North America and western Europe. PCBs and dioxins are suspected, and studies of farmed and laboratory mink provide supporting evidence.
Dolphins – PFOS, classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a cancer-causing chemical, has been found in dolphins and tuna in the Mediterranean and in sea eagles and salmon in the Baltic.
Fish - Chemical pollution can cause hormone disruption. The best-known effect is the feminising of male fish, which start producing eggs in their testes.
Crustaceans - brominated flame retardants are highly toxic to crustaceans. They have also been found in sperm whales and, recently, in the eggs of peregrine falcons.
Surprisingly, animals in the Arctic can be subjected to very high levels of pollution, one reason being the fact that air and water currents carry contaminants from the south.
Human contamination
Up to 300 man-made chemicals have been found in humans. Human Health effects that have been associated with exposure to man-made chemicals include:
• for men: testicular cancer, undescended testicles, low sperm counts, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, work related asthma, workplace cancers
• for woman: breast cancer increase by 50% since 1971, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, work related asthma, workplace cancers
• for children: dramatic rise in childhood cancers, learning disabilities (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), weakening the immune system so more susceptible to common diseases, premature puberty.
While some of these effects are caused by DDT and PCBs that are now banned, many new chemicals with similar properties are on the market and their long-term effects are not yet known.
What to do
There are simple actions that everyone can take to reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals and protect wildlife from the toxic threat.
However stronger laws also need to be put in place. From 2003 until 2006 WWF carried out the DetoX campaign to make European citizens and decision makers aware of the shocking lack of safety information for the large majority of chemicals used in daily life.
This was done to strengthen the new proposed EU legislation REACH. WWF saw this as a unique opportunity to close the knowledge gap on chemicals and secure a safer management system for chemicals in Europe.
