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Living healthily in a chemical world

    • 18508 posts
    January 31, 2023 6:46 AM EST

    Every day, we are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of synthetic chemicals. They are in our food, clothes, tools, furniture, toys, cosmetics and medicines. Our society would not be the same without these substances. However, despite their usefulness, we know many of these substances can have negative impacts on our health and the environment.

    According to some estimates, about 6 % of the world’s disease burden — including chronic diseases, cancers, neurological and developmental disorders — and 8 % of deaths can be attributed to chemicals. Moreover, these numbers could be growing and they take into consideration only a small number of chemicals whose effect on health is well established.

    Dangerous cocktails and ‘forever chemicals’

    More than 300 million tonnes of chemicals were consumed in the EU in 2018 and more than two thirds of this amount were chemicals that are classified as hazardous to health, according to Eurostat. Over 20 000 individual chemicals have been registered in the EU under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation.

    As these numbers keep growing, it is increasingly difficult to assess all the effects that chemicals have on our health and the environment case by case. Most studies so far have investigated the effects of only single chemicals and their safe thresholds but people are constantly exposed to a mixture of chemicals. This combined exposure can lead to health effects, even if single substances in the mixture do not exceed safe levels.

    Moreover, persistent chemicals can accumulate in human tissues, causing negative health effects after long‑term exposure. For example, per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of almost 5 000 widely used chemicals that can accumulate over time in humans and in the environment. They are an example of persistent organic pollutants — the so-called forever chemicals.

    People are mainly exposed to PFAS through drinking water, food and food packaging, dust, cosmetics, PFAS-coated textiles and other consumer products. The effects of human exposure to PFAS include kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage and a series of developmental effects affecting fetuses.

    Using PFAS-free products and cooking materials helps to reduce exposure. General and specific guidance on how to find PFAS-free alternatives is often provided by consumer organisations and national institutions working on the environment, health or chemicals.

    • 18508 posts
    January 31, 2023 7:07 AM EST

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