Everyday exposure

Chemicals permeate our lives. There is no longer any corner of the globe which is free of man-made chemicals.

The chemicals industry is one of the biggest and most powerful sectors in the world. Many toxic chemicals are unintentional by-products of industrial processes. Dioxins are an example of extremely toxic results of processes. Other chemicals, such as agricultural chemicals, are specifically designed to be toxic.

Since the earliest days of civilization the use of toxic elements such as mercury or lead have caused of localised health problems. With the advent of the industrial era mankind started producing synthetic chemicals which were never before known on the planet.

Some of these take a very long time to break down. The longer they persist in the environment the more likely they are to be spread by wind or sea currents from their point of origin. Synthetic chemicals have found their way into soil, air and water in every part of the environment.

Widespread use has dispersed these substances worldwide. No longer is there any mountain top or deep-sea bed which is free of contamination from synthetic chemicals. High up in the Austrian Alps a crystal-clear lake was found in 2001 to be substantially polluted by industrial chemicals.

Chemical gases released to the atmosphere can travel thousands of kilometres by "grass-hopping" to colder areas of the globe in a series of leaps. They are lifted into the air and deposited again many times until trapped. Mountainous regions in particular can capture pollutants which end up in lakes and rivers when the snow melts.

All rivers eventually run to the sea. Chemical pollution of the coastal zone is a serious problem in all of Europe's seas where emission of contaminants have brought about degraded habitats and a decline in water quality. Sea mammals with a large mass of body fat can become storage depots for chemicals which build up and persist even when the animal has died. The corpse of a whale may contain enough toxic chemicals in its fatty deposits to be classified as hazardous waste.

Elevated concentrations of heavy metals and PCBs (polychlorobiphenols) have been found in fish and bottom sediments. Build-up or bio-accumulation of these substances pose a threat to ecosystems and human health. Dioxins, brominated flame retardants, plasticisers and organotins are some of the most frequent pollutants found in fish.

Yet fishery products in Europe are not regulated by the same limits for dioxin as meat, milk and eggs. The Greens/EFA guide to the EU chemicals policy claims that "most of the fish being sold in supermarkets across Europe would be banned from sale if fish had the same limits for dioxin as meat, eggs, milk or other regulated food."

Dust, rainwater and breast milk

The number of substances that humans and the eco-system are continuously exposed to is so large it is very difficult to link an observed effect with one particular substance. Human breast milk has been found to contain some 350 synthetic chemicals. There are thousands more everywhere scientists look - in house dust, rainwater, food and human blood. This chronic exposure to synthetic chemicals over a long period of time has severe health consequences for humans and the environment.

Once the damage has been identified it is very difficult to reverse. Persistent and bio-accumulative chemicals stay around for a long time and when they are dispersed into the air, sea and soil there is no way to clean them up.

The use of chemicals was unregulated until 40 years ago when the petro-chemical industry began to flood society with new substances and negative consequences first became apparent. When regulations eventually came into place they were limited and focused only on acute exposure. Current regulations provide insufficient protection against the hazards of persistent and bio-accumulative chemicals as they were created with free trade and the internal market in mind.

Certain effects such as damage to the reproductive system only appear after a long time or even in the next generation. Some subtle effects such as minor brain damage or dysfunction in developing children are difficult to assess. However there is little doubt that man-made chemicals are having a large scale effect on human health.

Hormonal influence

Although cancer was one of the first health problems identified with synthetic chemicals, their influence on hormones is also considered to cause damage.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can cause malfunction or suppression of naturally occurring hormones in humans and wildlife. The immune system is highly dependent on hormonal balance and may be disturbed by endocrine disrupters, especially at foetal stage or in the early years of life. The influence of EDCs is a suspected contributor to asthma and allergies.

A tragic example of EDC damage is the case of a drug which was given to prevent miscarriage in the Sixties but caused cancers and birth defects in children born. Another case concerns a pesticide containing an endocrine disrupter which caused sterility in male factory workers at the production plant.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that some 35 million people are currently suffering from work-related diseases caused by exposure to hazardous substances at the work place. For people outside industrial areas chemical exposure in their everyday lives is thought to be the cause of some 130,000 cases of cancer annually.

The challenge of calculating and regulating the damage to human health caused by exposure to synthetic chemicals is being taken on by the EU strategy for a chemical policy called REACH - Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals.

Powerful lobbying

The Commission is divided between DG Environment, representing the interests of health and environment, and DG Enterprise, representing the interests of industry. The initiative for drawing up the strategy first came from DG Environment. As the powerful industry lobby became critical of the strategy there was a swing in focus away from the original intention to protect humans and the environment to protecting competitiveness

REACH was presented as a proposal by the EU Commission in 2003 but suffered attacks from the chemicals industry and the four largest chemical producing nations - United States, France, Germany and UK. The campaigns against REACH have been described as being among the most aggressive ever experienced in the EU.

US lobbying was so strong that it prompted a letter of protest from 68 medical, healthcare, academic, scientific and environmental organisations. The prime concerns of the US government were that the new approach could disrupt US exports of chemicals and consumer products containing hazardous substances in the EU. The industry was afraid that similar policies might be embraced by the United Nations for regional or global regulation treaties.

CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council, complained that the proposed system would increase bureaucracy and slow progress. The chemicals industry employed extensive lobbying tactics and managed to delay the progress of the legislation. The US chemicals lobby and the global federation, ICCA, together with the US government joined the battle. US Foreign Secretary Colin Powell sent a cable to US embassies in the EU to strongly encourage the Commission to limit regulation to only the most dangerous substances.

The four largest NGOs in Europe - Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF and the European Environmental Bureau identified a number of crucial flaws in REACH. The European Environmental Bureau criticised the watering down of the original proposal:

"Unprecedented interference by the chemical producers in Europe and the US has led the Commission to considerably weaken the proposal and to tip the balance away from environmental and public health protection towards the self-interests of business, which seems to fear public exposure and calms serious negative economic impacts."

Industry should be made responsible for providing information about the risks posed by chemicals and the regulatory measures taken. This would create a demand for substitute chemicals which have been sufficiently tested and found safe for a particular use.

It is estimated that testing of all existing chemicals will cost €2.1 billion over 11 years to be paid by industry. The European Chemicals Bureau would need to take on an extra 190 technical and administrative staff.

Benefits to society are expected to far outweigh the costs. Treatment for allergies in Europe is already costing €29 billion a year. Chemical substances are considered to play a major role in directly or indirectly inducing allergies. Even a small reduction in the cost of treatment will outweigh the cost of implementing the chemicals policy.

The final draft presented last October is still under debate. The Commission will continue to amend the proposal until there is agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council on the regulatory details.

For a free copy of The Only Planet Guide to the Secrets of Chemicals Policy in the EU, e-mail Swedish Green MEP Inger Schorling at ischorling@europarl.eu.int.