After many heated debates on what constitutes sustainable business, the final pieces of the giant EU Taxonomy Regulation puzzle are now being developed and put into place. But what is the Taxonomy? How does it work? And how on Earth is it connected to hazardous chemicals? More:

• Under construction: The chemical aspects of the Taxonomy Regulation – so far  –  ChemSec
• SIN List-Substitute It Now-Learn which chemicals your company should avoid  –  ChemSec

Independent testing of more than 100 packaging products from US restaurant and grocery chains identified PFAS chemicals in many of the wrappers, a Consumer Reports investigation has found. More:

• Revealed: the dangerous chemicals in your food wrappers  –  The Guardian
• Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s pledge initial action on toxic PFAS  –  Safer Chemicals Healthy Families

• Presence of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Food Contact Materials (FCM) and Its Migration to Food (Research article)
• Is modern life poisoning me? I took the tests to find out  –  The Guardian
• I tested my tap water, household products and cat for toxic 'forever chemicals'  –  The Guardian

• Take Out Toxic PFAS Chemicals in Food Packaging (Report)  –  ToxicFreeFuture & Safer Chemicals
• Moving from Single-Use to Reusable  –  Restaurant Brands International
• Update on Eliminating Added PFAS From Our Food Packaging  –  CAVA
• Packaging & Waste  –  Corporate McDonalds

Bayer reached an $80 million settlement with Ohio to resolve environmental damage allegedly caused by polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, made by the company's Monsanto business, the state attorney general said. More:

• Bayer reaches $80 mln PCB contamination settlement with Ohio  –  Reuters

Maine faces a crisis from PFAS-contaminated produce, which is causing farms to close and farmers to face the loss of their livelihoods. More:

• ‘I don’t know how we’ll survive’: the farmers facing ruin in Maine’s ‘forever chemicals’ crisis  –  The Guardian

• PFAS Statement on the spreading of bio-solids  –  SongBird Farm
• Toxic 'forever chemicals' found in Michigan farm's beef  –  abc News
• Arundel farmer denied aid in ‘forever chemicals’ nightmare  –  Portland Press Herald

• An Act To Prohibit the Contamination of Clean Soils with So-called Forever Chemicals (Legislative document)  –  Maine Legislature
• Bill looks to eliminate ‘loophole’ that allows spreading sewage sludge  –  Sun Journal
• Committee discussion on LD 1911  –  Casella Waste Services

• Maine bans toxic ‘forever chemicals’ under groundbreaking new law  –  The Guardian

• PFAS in Public Water Systems  –  Maine.gov

• PFAS Exposure and Risk of Cancer  –  National Cancer Institute
• Thyroid Disrupting Effects of Old and New Generation PFAS (Research article)
• Environmental Perfluoroalkyl Acid Exposures Are Associated with Liver Disease characterized by Apoptosis and Altered Serum Adipocytokines (Research article)
• Gestational exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and congenital heart defects: A nested case-control pilot study (Research article)

• Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances leads to immunotoxicity: Epidemiological and toxicological evidence (Research article)
• Perfluorooctanoic acid exposure triggers oxidative stress in the mouse pancreas (Research article)
• Abstract 3095: Promotion of pancreatic cancer by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (Research abstract)
• Assessment of perfluorooctanoic acid toxicity in pancreatic cells (Research abstract)

"Persistent organic pollutants are chemicals that are particularly harmful to the environment and human health," said French environment minister Barbara Pompili, for the EU presidency: "To secure the progress towards an increasingly circular economy, and to ensure the quality of secondary raw materials, it is crucial that waste does not contain persistent organic pollutants." More:

• EU states agree to reduce persistent organic pollutants in waste  –  EUbusiness

• Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on POPs  –  European Commission
• Proposal for amending Annexes IV and V to Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on POPs  –  European Commission

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is a key piece of European Union legislation on pollution, regulating around 50,000 industrial installations in Europe. It was meant to achieve a high-level of protection for the health of humans and the environment but despite its strong potential, EU Member States and industry have used broad interpretations and exploited loopholes to shirk their responsibilities. More:

• Mythbusting the Industrial Emissions Directive  –  META
• Burning-The-Evidence (Case Study)  –  EEB
• Summary on IED contribution to water policy (Report)  –  European Commission

No person is an island, and neither are hazardous chemicals. We are all being exposed to a virtual “cocktail” of hundreds – if not thousands – of potentially harmful substances every day. The cocktail effect needs to be considered when regulating substances of concern and calculating limit values. More:

• The sober way to tackle the cocktail effect  –  ChemSec

• Chemical Cocktails: The neglected threat of toxic mixtures and how to fix it (Report)  –  ChemTrust

• Prenatal exposures to mixtures of endocrine disrupting chemicals and children’s weight trajectory up to age 5.5 in the SELMA study (Research article)
• More chemicals, fewer words Exposure to chemical mixtures during pregnancy alters brain development  –  Uppsala University

The Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) criteria could be the engine to move the whole economy away from hazardous chemicals and towards a more sustainable future. But it is important that it is just that and not simply a paper exercise – or worse: a tool for greenwashing. More:

• The Big Five that can accelerate The Safe and Sustainable by Design criteria  –  ChemSec
• Our view on Safe and Sustainable by Design criteria  –  ChemSec

According to the European Environmental Agency, we only have thorough information on the properties of 500 chemicals out of the 100,000 chemicals on the market. Meanwhile, industrial chemicals are omnipresent in the food we eat, the water we drink and the products we use daily at home and at work. This consistent exposure to the complex, potentially toxic mix of chemicals is linked to fuelling growing rates of cancer, reproductive disorders, and other modern-age metabolic diseases. More:

• Walking the EU’s talk on a toxic-free environment – PART 1  –  META

• Chemical Cocktails – The neglected threat of toxic mixtures and how to fix it  –  ChemTrust
• The Lancet Commission on pollution and health (Executive summary)  –  The Lancet

• Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers  –  The Guardian
• Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution  –  The Guardian

• Understanding REACH  –  ECHA
• The EU’s chemicals strategy for sustainability towards a toxic-free environment  –  European Commision

Higher levels of exposure to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” may increase the likelihood of Covid-19 infection, more serious symptoms and death, a group of recent studies have found. Public health advocates and researchers have feared since the coronavirus pandemic’s onset that PFAS, which are known to be immunotoxic, could hinder the body’s ability to fight Covid-19. More:

• Higher levels of PFAS exposure may increase chance of Covid, studies say  –  The Guardian

• Does PFAS exposure affect COVID-19 illness and vaccine effectiveness? Researchers want to know  –  WHYY
• Severity of COVID-19 at elevated exposure to perfluorinated alkylates (Research article)
• Susceptibility to COVID-19 after High Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances from Contaminated Drinking Water: An Ecological Study from Ronneby, Sweden (Research article)
• Association between urinary per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances and COVID-19 susceptibility (Research article)
• Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Mortality for COVID-19: A Spatial Ecological Analysis in the Veneto Region (Italy) (Research article)

• Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) and Water (Factsheet)  –  Minnesota Department of Health

• ‘Forever chemicals’: what are PFAS and what risk do they pose?  –  The Guardian
• What are the health effects of PFAS?  –  US ATSDR

A UN expert has warned of the creation of pollution “sacrifice zones” across the world, where tens of millions of people are suffering strokes, cancers, respiratory problems and heart disease as a result of toxic contamination of the environment. More:

• Millions suffering in deadly pollution ‘sacrifice zones’, warns UN expert  –  The Guardian

• Access to a healthy environment, declared a human right by UN rights council  –  UN News
• The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment  –  UN Human Rights

Agricultural pesticides were among the toxic pollutants found in the study, including the herbicide glyphosate and endocrine disruptors. Both these substances damage the environment, animals and plants, and have adverse effects on human health, with links to cancers and developmental disorders. More:

• Toxic Rivers and the EU's Pesticide Problem  –  META

• EU Commission must extend water pollution regulation to include pharmaceuticals, PFAS and (more) pesticides  –  META
• EU Wastewater laws need a brush-up  –  META
• Joint Statement on the Revision of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive  –  EEB

• Ríos Tóxicos (Informe)  –  Ecologistas en acción

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials reversed their previous finding that a widely used and highly toxic pesticide could jeopardize dozens of plants and animals with extinction, after receiving pledges from chemical manufacturers that they will change product labels for malathion so that it’s used more carefully by gardeners, farmers and other consumers. More:

• US officials reverse course on pesticide’s harm to wildlife  –  AP News

Scientists in Kenya have discovered an organic way of protecting potatoes from the invasive and highly destructive potato cyst nematodes that attack planted seed causing major yield and financial losses. More:

• Banana waste wrap could help save potatoes  –  The East African

On 2 March, world leaders and environment ministers agreed to start negotiations on the world’s first legally binding international treaty to eliminate one of humanity’s most devastating sources of pollution: plastics. This hugely positive step has the power to attack the problem as never before. But to achieve this goal, science needs to be front and centre in the negotiations. More:

• Landmark treaty on plastic pollution must put scientific evidence front and centre  –  Nature
• UNEA Resolution - ‘End Plastic Pollution’ - and IUCN role in implementation of the Treaty  –  IUCN
• The world says yes to a cradle to grave plastics treaty: Now the work begins  –  Mongabay

Toxic PFAS are often added into consumer products to make items stain- or water-resistant. But mounting evidence indicates that many products made without the intentional addition of PFAS are also contaminated. More:

• Unintentional PFAS in products: A “jungle” of contamination  –  EHN
• What are PFAS?  –  EHN
• Fluorinated Compounds in North American Cosmetics (Research article)
• Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities (Research article)

• Fluorinated Compounds in U.S. Fast Food Packaging (Research article)
• Significance of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Food Packaging (Research abstract)

A tiny, poppy seed-sized particle of plastic might seem innocuous on its own. But when a speck of plastic is coupled with organic pollutants, the chemical makeup of that plastic can swell with toxicity. More:

• Microplastics plus organic pollutants equals 10 times the toxicity, study finds  –  Mongabay
• Interactions of microplastics and organic compounds in aquatic environments: A case study of augmented joint toxicity (Research abstract)
• Toward a Global Understanding of Chemical Pollution: A First Comprehensive Analysis of National and Regional Chemical Inventories (Research article)
• Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities (Research article)

In front of the United Nations African headquarters in Nairobi, a 30-foot-high artwork featuring a faucet “spewing” a long stream of plastic waste dramatically illustrates the worsening flow of plastic fouling the world. Inside the main hall, 175 UN delegates took the first formal steps to turn off the tap. They agreed to negotiate the first comprehensive global treaty to curb plastic pollution—a move hailed as the most significant environmental agreement since the Paris climate accord in 2015. More:

• The world’s nations agree to fix the plastic waste crisis  –  National Geographic
• Plastic: World agrees to tackle the crisis  –  DW
• UN agrees to create world's first-ever plastics pollution treaty in a blow to big oil –  CNN

Five decades ago in an opera house in Stockholm Sweden, world leaders opened discussions that would lead to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Since that meeting on 5 June 1972, UNEP has become the world's leading advocate for nature, using science, diplomacy and public outreach to counter a range of threats, from pollution to climate change. Here's a closer look at UNEP's work over the last 50 years and how it's helping to make the planet a more sustainable, equitable place. More:

• 50 years of environmental milestones  –  UNEP
• Looking back at 50 years of UNEP  –  UNEP
• UNEP combats pollution, restores ozone and protects seas, UN chief tells 50th anniversary session –  UN News
• OPINION: The state of the planet Earth since the 1972 Stockholm Conference –  SaltWire

Plastic is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the additives used to enhance this deceptively versatile material are often hazardous to human health. All the while, the plastics industry makes sure the demand – that they invented in the first place – keeps growing. Calling plastic the super-villain of chemical products is no exaggeration. But how did we end up in this dystopian tale? And what heroic measures can get us out of it? More:

• Will plastic – the super-villain of chemical products – cause the climate and human health to snap?  –  ChemSec
• Enabling a circular economy for chemicals in plastics (Research article)
• Overview of known plastic packaging-associated chemicals and their hazards (Research article)