The 2019 Global Environment Outlook and Global Chemicals Outlook: challenges for environmental toxicology and chemistry in Latin America

Abstract

The Global Environment Outlook and Global Chemicals Outlook II, released in 2019, are important flagship UN reports that should serve as warnings to the scientific community on the need to more quickly act on and react to chemical risks and more comprehensively address the issue of chemical pollution. Sustainable development goals for 2030 provide an interesting pathway to face big challenges, as chemical production far outpaces our abilities to effectively address the potential risks of new chemicals released into our environment every day. The global policy response has been to selectively address groups of chemicals based on global concern over them, such as the persistent organic pollutants of the Stockholm Convention; however, this chemical-by-chemical approach has proved challenging, as new chemical threats have appeared continuously, without an effective societal response. In this article, the author will introduce the major issues for the global environment that chemical pollution poses, as well as a personal view on how to progress, allowing Latin America to improve chemical risk awareness and potential local and regional responses. The theme for this year's Global Environment Outlook Report was healthy planet, healthy people, aimed at raising awareness of the need to maintain the environmental conditions necessary for human health in light of our current understanding of the relationships between human well-being and ecosystem integrity. How society responds to chemical pollution also depends on awareness and the development of scientific knowledge regarding these issues. It is clear that chemicals are an integral, necessary part of modern life, but it is also true that many chemicals once considered safe are now causing problems — for instance, plastic pollution, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, endocrine disruptors, etc. — and we can help our societies respond more effectively to these challenges.