In a viewpoint article published on December 2, 2022, in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Martin Scheringer from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and co-authors from Linköping University and Stockholm University, Sweden, emphasized the need for a regulation addressing the persistence of chemicals.
Just recently, in summer of 2022, Cousins et al. analyzed levels of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in different environmental media and reported rainwater levels of individual PFAA to be higher than the US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water health advisories (FPF reported). They further associated that phenomenon with the high persistence of these substances. The publication received significant media attention, which the authors took as an opportunity to start a discussion on the environmental persistence of chemicals in their current viewpoint.
Here, Scheringer and co-authors described several global pollution cases starting from the 1950s such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were detected in different environments worldwide. They further pointed out that all these chemicals have a high environmental persistence in common, which was the main causative factor for the global scale of the problem since persistent chemicals remain in the environment for so long that they reach all regions of the world. Due to a rapid regulatory response to these pollutants, they “largely disappeared from the public discussion.” This disappearance prevented the public from learning “how important environmental persistence is as an element of the hazardous properties of chemicals.” It is this same characteristic, persistence, that makes plastics pollution a global problem.
The authors concluded that “regulation of chemicals has been focused too much on adverse effects alone and that this focus has diverted regulatory attention away from persistence as the underlying driver of the unfolding global problems.” In addition, they emphasized that chemical regulations need to be developed that target high persistence alone. Already in 2018, scientists reviewed environmental implications of high persistence and argued that highly persistent chemicals should be regulated on the basis of their persistence alone (FPF reported).
As such, Scheringer and co-authors propose steps to tackle highly persistent chemicals. On the one hand, such chemicals should only be allowed for essential uses (FPF reported). On the other hand, they argue that “highly persistent chemicals should not be used in open applications” at all, which includes food packaging and many more consumer products. To reach this aim, the development of less persistent chemicals (or non-chemical alternatives) is needed.
Reference
Scheringer, M. et al. (2022). “Stories of global chemical pollution – will we ever understand environmental persistence?” Environmental Science and Technology. DOI 10.1021/acs.est.2c06611
