IPEN and affiliates have sent a letter to the SAICM Secretariat expressing concern with the joint International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) – UNEP study entitled “Knowledge management and information sharing for the sound management of chemicals.” The study was sent to SAICM stakeholders for comments to “inform the study.” The IPEN comments cover three areas: 1) important issues that are not part of the study; 2) issues that should be included in the study; and 3) concerns over UNEP’s private sector engagement.
Toxics Link has released a new report about microplastics in cosmetics. The report explains what microplastics are, how they end up in the environment, what their various impacts are (environmental, health, socio-economic, etc.), and alternatives to their use.
PRESS RELEASE
Your facewash might be cleaning your face but polluting the environment!
IPEN Steering Committee Member Imogen Ingram from the Island Sustainability Alliance Cook Islands (ISACI) has co-authored an important paper about marine litter plastics and their toxic chemical components that has been published in Environmental Sciences Europe.
News media across the globe have been heaping praise on Samsung's cool new Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones. But amid all the raves about the tech innovations and fancy features of these devices, the lives of the mostly female workers who make them have been virtually ignored.
Few consumers or reporters are aware, for example, that half of all Samsung phones are manufactured in Vietnam by a female-majority workforce in their twenties.
Our organizations explored this hidden story by conducting in-depth, open-ended, confidential interviews with 45 women who work on the assembly lines at two Samsung factories in Vietnam. What we found was shocking.
January 18, 2017: Your dry cleaned clothes may be unsuspectingly exposing you to PERC, a toxic chemical, known to have high probability of being carcinogen, reveals “Cleaning Clothes: but what about environment and health” , a report released by Toxics Link today. In the first of its kind of study in India done by this environmental group, garments were tested for PERC after dry cleaning and 75% of them were found to contain the harmful chemical residue.
The Czech environmental group Arnika is ringing alarm bells. According to the results of a recent study it conducted, some children’s toys and grooming accessories, such as hair brushes, sold in the EU contain toxic substances. Arnika’s Karolína Brabcová says this is an unfortunate side product of the drive to promote plastics recycling.
