Poor management of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste threatens "many, if not all, human rights," the newly appointed independent human rights independent expert on the rising threat told the Human Rights Council on Monday.
Bethanie Carney Almroth - an environmental scientist and researcher in the field who took up her post in August - expressed particular concern over so-called "forever chemicals" (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS) which are found in everyday consumer products.
Once released, these synthetic chemicals can remain in the environment for centuries, and there is currently no way of removing them from contaminated ecosystems, according to a recent UN report .
Exposure occurs throughout the chemicals' lifecycle - from production sites to contaminated water, food and consumer products - raising risks to hormone systems, liver function and immune function.
PFAS can even cross the placenta and have been detected in umbilical cord blood and breast milk, exposing people at particularly sensitive stages of development, the report stressed.
Ms. Carney Almroth noted that PFAS impair the right to life, health, a healthy environment, a safe and healthy working environment along with access to information, "justice and remedy".
Global justice issue
The consequences of toxic pollution are not distributed equally, making it "an issue of global environmental justice," she stressed.
PFAS are mostly manufactured in industrialised States and spread globally through emissions, trade, and transboundary movements of PFAS-contaminated waste.
Yet communities already facing poverty, discrimination and marginalisation - notably workers, women, children, Indigenous Peoples, and people of African descent - are "exposed first and worst", Ms Carney Almroth underscored.
"A human-rights based approach requires us to ask not simply how much pollution exists, but who is poisoned, and who benefits? Who bears the costs, and who makes the rules?" she explained, laying out her vision for her new mandate.
Act now
As a former professor of ecotoxicology - how all living organisms are impacted by toxic pollutants - Ms. Carney Almroth stressed that she wants her new position to be dedicated to "[moving] upstream."
This means not only addressing how to clean up toxic pollution once it has occurred but also preventing unnecessary or dangerous contamination in the first place.
She recalled the UN report's conclusion calling for an urgent ban on all non-essential uses of PFAS, citing that when pollution is potentially irreversible, waiting for complete certainty about its longevity and the dangers it may cause can itself create lasting harm.
Ms. Carney Almroth also wants to make sure States, courts, and other partners have access to reliable information on toxic pollution to enable more effective policymaking, highlighting the need to "protect independent science from conflicts of interest, disinformation and manufactured doubt."
She also wants to make sure everyone's voice is heard.
"Science can help us identify harm. Human rights tell us why that harm matters, whose rights must be protected, and where responsibilities lie. The knowledge and experience of affected people help us understand what meaningful solutions require," she said.
