Chemicals in Consumer Products

United Nations Environment Program Chemicals in Products

About this project

Global trends such as population dynamics, urbanization and economic growth are rapidly increasing chemical use, particularly in emerging economies. However, if poorly used and managed, hazardous chemicals and waste can threaten human health and the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been making efforts in promoting the proper management of chemicals and waste. Some progress has been made in managing chemicals through national and stakeholder action, international treaties and voluntary instruments. We support the UNEP by providing critical information, data, and expert opinions particularly for chemicals used in consumer products.

People

Lei Huang (huanglei@umich.edu)

Peter Fantke (pefan@dtu.dk)

Nicolo Aurisano (niau@dtu.dk)

Olivier Jolliet (ojolliet@umich.edu)

Keywords

Chemicals in products, toys, building materials, chemical management

Project Summary

Global Chemicals Outlook II

The first edition of the Global Chemicals Outlook (GCO), published in February 2013, assembled scientific, technical and socio-economic information on the sound management of chemicals. Decision 27/12, adopted by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2013, recognized the significance of the findings of the first GCO, and requested the Executive Director to continue work on the GCO. Thus, the second edition of the GCO (GCO-II) has been released in April 2019, which was prepared with substantive contributions from more than 400 experts and under the guidance of a Steering Committee. The GCO-II finds that the global goal to minimize adverse impacts of chemicals and waste will not be achieved by 2020. Solutions exist, but more ambitious worldwide action by all stakeholders is urgently required. The GCO-II has identified a range of actions for consideration by policymakers around the world and informing chemicals and waste management beyond 2020. We contributed substantially to the preparation of GCO-II by drafting foundational papers and specific chapters, in particular the Chapter II (Where do we stand in achieving the 2020 goal – assessing overall progress and gaps). Our team contributed to most sections on Chemicals in products, global value chains and circularity, exposure assessment (Olivier Jolliet, Peter Fantke) and on the 5 other issues where emerging evidence indicates a risk to human health and the environment (Lei Huang).

SAICM project

In 2006, following the call made at the WSSD, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was adopted by the first session of the ICCM (ICCM1) as a multi- and cross-sectoral and participatory strategic approach. SAICM’s overall objective is “to achieve the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health”. We support SAICM by providing data and tools to assist in the prioritization of efforts for the sound management of chemicals and waste.

We focus on chemicals used in building materials and toys. We first gather data on chemical-product combinations and chemical mass in product for hundreds of chemicals in building materials and toys, from literature and various online databases. We then use high-throughput suited models developed by us to predict the chemical emissions or human exposures during the use stage (i.e., first-order transfer fractions from the consumer product to near-field compartments or human intake compartments). Next, we used our product intake fractions (PiF) framework (a coupled near-field and far-field exposure assessment framework based on matrixes) to calculate the PiFs, defined as the fraction of a chemical within a product that is eventually taken in by the human population, from these first-order transfer fractions. The chemical mass in products are then combined with the PiFs to obtain the exposure doses. Finally, the exposure doses are compared with toxicity measures from experimental studies or predicted by quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) to determine the health impacts, which are ranked to show the chemicals of highest concern, which can then assist in prioritizing chemicals for proper managements.

Graph showing the hazard quotients (HQ) for organic chemicals in toys for child users, accounting for inhalation exposure and direct dermal contact exposure. Chemicals with HQ higher than or close to 1 are of highest concern.

Graph showing the hazard quotients (HQ) for organic chemicals in Pharos building products for adult users (userA) and child users (userC), accounting for all exposure pathways. Chemicals with HQ higher than or close to 1 are of highest concern.

Publications

Reports

Global Chemicals Outlook II – From Legacies to Innovative Solutions: Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. April 2019. Published by the United Nations Environment Programme. https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/global-chemicals-outlook-ii-legacies-innovative-solutions

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