Chemicals of Concern

Chemicals of concern

Why do we even call chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic concerning? World leading scientists have found extremely alarming and deeply concerning health impacts from five groups of chemicals of concern that are leaching out of plastic.

Even worse, there is currently no comprehensive global framework to protect you and your family from this threat.

The only thing between these health impacts and your family is a haphazard patchwork of international, regional and domestic regulation.

In our view, this is not good enough.

The solution

We need the Global Plastics Treaty to comprehensively regulate chemicals across the full life cycle of plastics.

Comprehensive regulation sounds burdensome and onerous. But, it’s actually simple.

Regulation not only protects the community from toxic chemicals but also provides benefits to industry by ensuring regulatory certainty.

We can look to other multilateral environment treaties, where countries have shown leadership in protecting their citizens and benefitting industry.

They start with a list (annexures) and we should do the same.

So where do we start?

The chemicals found by our world leading scientists to have extremely alarming and deeply concerning health harms.

They are:

Bisphenols (including BPA)
Phthalates
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

We aren’t saying these are the only chemicals which should be listed, there are many other chemicals of concern, some that have not even been studied in humans. But this is where we should start.

To see how bad these five truly are - see the health harms here.

Proposed mechanism for regulation under the Treaty

There is one key consideration that will inform how these chemicals are regulated – whether the chemical is already regulated by another multilateral environmental agreement (MEA).

If the chemical is listed in another MEA then impose control measures.
If the chemical is not listed in another MEA then regulate the chemicals under this Treaty.

The benefits of this approach

A single treaty regulating the full life cycle of chemicals used in plastic would provide:

health and environmental benefits by regulating chemicals known to be harmful to human health
certainty and reduced regulatory burden for business and industry by providing clarity on what chemicals can and cannot be used in plastic production
the ability for science to be at the forefront of regulation by ensuring regulatory action is informed by research.

This is achievable

The comprehensive regulation of harmful substances has happened before.

The world came together to protect people, ecosystems and wildlife from the effects of mercury (a highly toxic heavy metal). A comprehensive treaty, known as the Minamata Convention, regulates all aspects of the life cycle of Mercury.

Chemicals of concern

Download our Delegates' resource now to support your discussions on the comprehensive regulation of chemicals of concern.