IPEN Senior Science and Technical Advisor Joseph DiGangi, PhD, participated in a side event at the 2nd United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA2) currently underway in Kenya. Advancing Sustainable Chemistry in a Sustainable Development Context: Opportunities for Global, Regional and National Chemicals Management sought to discuss the sustainable chemistry concept and related opportunities from developing countries’ perspectives; examine the potential of sustainable chemistry in a SAICM beyond-2020 and 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda context; provide an update on recent international developments and discussions related to sustainable chemistry and the chemicals and waste dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals; and showcase specific initiatives to advance sustainable chemistry, including related policy analysis and technical support.
For more information about IPEN's activities at UNEA2, see this IPEN webpage.
(Taipei City, Taiwan)More than sixty percent of paints analyzed in a new study on total lead in solvent-based decorative paints contained high lead levels, and at least one paint from all eight brands analyzed contained exceedingly high lead levels. The findings are included in a report released today by Taiwan Watch Institute and IPEN. Moreover, most paint can labels failed to carry consumer information about lead content.
“The health impacts of lead exposure on young children’s brains are lifelong, irreversible and untreatable,” said Xavier Sun, Researcher, Taiwan Watch Institute. “We are limiting our children and our nation’s future intellectual development even though safe and effective alternatives are already in use and widely available in Taiwan. We must reduce this critical source of lead exposure to young children.”
IPEN Participating Organization Eco-Accord has released a new publication entitled "New Persistent Supertoxicants and Their Impacts on Human Health." It was prepared and published as a collective monograph and a survey in the relevant and developing field of eco-toxicology and analytical chemistry of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
The monograph provides an introduction into the problem of analysis, monitoring and human health impacts of persistent organic pollutants listed in the Stockholm Convention on POPs, since 2009.
24 May 2016, Quezon City. A waste and pollution watchdog group advised the public to steer clear of school supplies containing cancer-causing and endocrine disrupting chemicals as consumers take advantage of “back-to-school” promotional sales.
During the course of the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Workshop on the Establishment of Legal Limits on Lead in Paint (co-hosted by the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations Environment Programme), which took place 19-20 May, 2016 in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, IPEN Co-Chair Dr. Olga Speranskaya was interviewed for the Moldovan television program "Publika": http://ru.publika.md/emisiuni/den-za-dnyom_791.html?video_id=2885431
Annual Worldwide Lead Exposure Costs are 7 Times the Amount Low- and Middle-Income Countries Receive in Development Assistance
(Nairobi, Kenya) Worldwide, the annual costs of lead exposure are $977 billion international dollars, with developing countries bearing the great majority of costs, according to research and a new interactive map released today that shows country-by-country costs. Overall, the costs of lead exposure are 7 times the amount of funding provided to developing countries in development aid in 2014.[i]
Economic Costs of Childhood Lead Exposure in Low-and Middle-Income Countries was developed by New York University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics (NYU) and released today at the 2nd United Nations Environment Assembly meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya. The website can be accessed at: http://nyulmc.org/pediatricleadexposure. The map was created to help governments see the costs of lead exposure in their own countries; compare those costs with other countries; and compare costs with the amount of development assistance their country receives.
