Category Archives: Chemical Pollution

Under the original 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), approximately 62,000 chemicals already in commerce were “grandfathered in”, meaning they were allowed to remain on the market without being reviewed for safety or requiring companies to provide health or environmental safety data on them

The addition of man-made chemicals, especially petrochemicals and plastics derived from fossil fuels is one of the existential boundaries threatening biodiversity, extinction, and ecosystems around the planet.

Richardson K et al (2023) Earth beyond 6 of 9 planetary boundaries. Science. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458

These include synthetic chemicals and substances (e.g., microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and organic pollutants); anthropogenically mobilized radioactive materials, including nuclear waste and nuclear weapons

Hundreds of thousands of synthetic chemicals are now produced and released to the environment. For many substances, the potentially large and persistent effects on Earth system processes of their introduction, particularly on functional biosphere integrity, are not well known, and their use is not well regulated. Humanity has repeatedly been surprised by unintended consequences of this release, e.g., with respect to the release of insecticides such as DDT and the effect of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on the ozone layer. For this class of novel entities, then, the only truly safe operating space that can ensure maintained Holocene-like conditions is one where these entities are absent unless their potential impacts with respect to Earth system have been thoroughly evaluated. This would imply that the quantified planetary boundary should be set at zero release of synthetic chemical compounds to the open environment unless they have been certified as harmless and are monitored. That is the target set by the Montreal Protocol with respect to the substances shown to be harmful by contributing to depletion of the ozone layer.