Chemicals of Concern

World leading scientists have found extremely alarming and deeply concerning health impacts from chemicals leaching out of plastic.

You can't protect yourself or your family from these health harms, because there is no transparency on chemicals found in plastic products.

The only protection your family currently has is a haphazard patchwork of international, regional and domestic regulation.

In our view, this is not good enough.

Article 3: A legally binding global framework for chemicals found in plastic

To protect your family and your community, Article 3 should provide tightly scoped and targeted regulation of chemical use in plastic.

Tightly scoped because it’s the use of a specified chemical in a specified plastic product.
Targeted because it addresses the source of the harm, rather than a downstream measure.

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

Annexure Y in Article 3 must protect human health by listing chemicals found by 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)

In Annexure Y, the plastic products these five chemicals must not be used in are toys, children’s products, and food contact materials.

Scientists have proven that these five chemicals are harmful across every stage of life – even pre-conception. There should be no age restrictions on products listed in Annexure Y.

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

Strengthening the voice of science and recognising the urgency of the challenge

Article 3 must ensure:

recommendations from scientists are adhered to for chemicals listed under Annexure Y
transparency requirements are adopted by the Conference of the Parties at the first meeting

This is achievable

Tight, targeted regulation to protect our health is not a new concept. We have done the same for lead when we removed it from petrol.

Lead was a cheap compound for which we paid a staggering cost. We learnt that it caused reductions in children’s IQ and increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes in adults. We learnt this, we regulated, and eliminated the source of harm – rather than managing exposure later.

Each year chemicals in plastic are leading to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths globally, and the loss of millions of IQ points in children.

Plastic and lead present us with the same problem, and the same workable solution. We must use tight targeted regulation to protect ourselves.

Plastics make me sick

Take action under Article 3

Article 3: A legally binding global framework for chemicals found in plastic

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

Annexure Y in Article 3 must protect human health by listing chemicals found by world leading scientists to have extremely alarming and deeply concerning health harms.

Strengthening the voice of science and recognising the urgency of the challenge

Article 3 must ensure:

This is achievable

Plastics make me sick

Take action under Article 3

Article 3: A legally binding global framework for chemicals found in plastic

We can look to other multilateral environment treaties, where countries have shown leadership in protecting their citizens.Annexure Y in Article 3 must protect human health by listing chemicals found by world leading scientists to have extremely alarming and deeply concerning health harms.

Strengthening the voice of science and recognising the urgency of the challenge

Article 3 must ensure:

This is achievable

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

Annexure Y in Article 3 must protect human health by listing chemicals found by world leading scientists to have extremely alarming and deeply concerning health harms.