chemicals and asbestos
13.
• Basic capacities for monitoring the existence and quantity of selected hazardous substances in water, air and food have been created in the majority of countries.
• At least one official source of information on chemicals is in place in all Member States;
• Ninety per cent of the countries
reported having developed a plan for emergency preparedness and response and indicated that the health sector was involved in its development and implementation.
• About two thirds of the Member States participating in the survey reported using risk assessment as an essential instrument in the decision-making process.
Box 12. Minamata Convention on Mercury
The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global legally-binding treaty. Its main objective is to protect the health of human beings and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. It was adopted in October 2013 and will enter into force after the fiftieth ratification. To date, 26 WHO European Member States and the EC signed the Convention.
Mercury is highly toxic, especially to children. According to recent studies of selected populations that rely on subsistence fishing, between 1.5 and 17 children per 1000 children showed cognitive impairment that resulted from the consumption of fish containing methylmercury. Exposure to mercury can be high in locations where risks of higher contamination of the environment and food sources might occur, in addition to exposure to mercury in consumer products.
Voluntary activities globally and domestically in a number of countries – such as banning mercury exports in the EU in 2011, continuing the reduction of mercury use in chlor-alkali plants and restricting the mercury content in electric and electronic equipment in European countries – have led to a decrease in the use of mercury.
To meet its objective, a wide range of measures is included in the Convention:
phasing out primary mercury mining and certain products with mercury added; reducing the use of mercury in production and its release into the environment; requiring control of the export of mercury and products with mercury added; providing safe storage; implementing sound management of waste containing mercury; assessing the effect of mercury on human health, particularly that of vulnerable populations; and conducting scientific research, information exchange, education and training.
Implementing the Convention will require multisectoral action – including the health sector. Its implementation will benefit health through a decrease in developmental and other neurological disorders in children (UNEP, 2014).
These efforts have led to a decrease in population exposure to chemicals recognized by WHO as chemicals of major public health concern. Notable progress has been achieved in reducing risk and strengthening regulation of persistent organic pollutants included in
the Stockholm Convention. According to a WHO–UNEP survey of breast-milk contamination with persistent organic pollutants for the period 1998−2012, exposure to dioxins and furans decreased by up to 30−50% in Luxembourg, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden and more than
twofold in Belgium (UNEP & WHO, 2013).
Levels of breast-milk contamination with dioxins and furans were also found to be low in the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan (UNEP & WHO, 2013). Levels of dioxin-like and non-dioxin-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticides have also fallen steadily over time.
The level of contamination of breast milk with organochlorine pesticides, however, is still of concern in some countries in central Asia and eastern Europe (UNEP
& WHO, 2013).
Exposure to hazardous chemicals remains an issue of concern in all Member States, though priorities differ significantly from country to country.
For example, within the EU, more than 1.8 million children are born every year with exposure to methylmercury above the adjusted safety limit of 0.58 μg/g (hair), and the total benefits of exposure prevention were estimated to be a gain of about 600 000 IQ points per year (Bellanger et al., 2013). Thus, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals seems to be an issue of priority within the Region, even though in some countries the risk of these chemicals is not properly evaluated yet (WHO, 2012). Also, obsolete pesticide stockpiles remain a significant source of risk to human health and the environment in some south-eastern European
countries and the newly independent states (IHPA, 2013).
Meeting the Parma Declaration goals in the area of chemical safety requires further action by Member States, especially action aimed at protecting vulnerable population groups (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2013). The WHO survey identified the following important gaps.
• Only half of Member States reported setting up programmes to reduce and/
or eliminate chemical risks to children and to manage the risks associated with industrial, agricultural and household chemicals (see Fig. 7).
• Even fewer countries specifically address exposures and risks from priority carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxicants and from endocrine disrupting chemicals.
• Less than half of the Member States have a legal basis for prohibiting the use of dangerous chemicals in products destined for children and for protecting places where children learn and play.
• In two thirds of the Member States, dedicated research programmes are either not funded or only partly funded.
Fig. 7. Types of chemicals addressed by policies and plans
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
All type of chemicals Industrial Agricultural Biocides Obsolete pesticides Toxic wastes
Percentage of Member States
Type of chemical
Source: WHO Regional Office for Europe (2013:9).
The WHO survey also found: occurrences of lack of information on such hazardous substances as endocrine disrupting chemicals; insufficient human, laboratory, methodological and financial capacities for the environmental and biological monitoring of carcinogens, mutagens and
reproductive toxicants and of endocrine disrupting chemicals; and the need to prioritize the chemicals to be addressed and to assess risks and long-term health effects, as well as the need to assess the cost–effectiveness of risk reduction measures.