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Schäffer A, Groh KJ, Sigmund G, Azoulay D, Backhaus T, Bertram MG, Carney Almroth B, Cousins IT, Ford AT, Grimalt JO, Guida Y, Hansson MC, Jeong Y, Lohmann R, Michaels D, Mueller L, Muncke J, Öberg G, Orellana MA, Sanganyado E, Schäfer RB, Sheriff I, Sullivan RC, Suzuki N, Vandenberg LN, Venier M, Vlahos P, Wagner M, Wang F, Wang M, Soehl A, Ågerstrand M, Diamond ML, Scheringer M. Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:19066-19077. [PMID: 37943968 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c04213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science-policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science-policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP's success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI). Here, we (i) define and review the implications of COI, and its relevance for the management of chemicals, waste, and pollution; (ii) summarize established tactics to manufacture doubt in favor of vested interests, i.e., to counter scientific evidence and/or to promote misleading narratives favorable to financial interests; and (iii) illustrate these with selected examples. This analysis leads to a review of arguments for and against chemical industry representation in the SPP's work. We further (iv) rebut an assertion voiced by some that the chemical industry should be directly involved in the panel's work because it possesses data on chemicals essential for the panel's activities. Finally, (v) we present steps that should be taken to prevent the detrimental impacts of COI in the work of the SPP. In particular, we propose to include an independent auditor's role in the SPP to ensure that participation and processes follow clear COI rules. Among others, the auditor should evaluate the content of the assessments produced to ensure unbiased representation of information that underpins the SPP's activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Schäffer
- Institute for Environmental Research, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, 210023 Nanjing, China
- Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco-Environment, Chongqing University, 400045 Chongqing, China
| | - Ksenia J Groh
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Gabriel Sigmund
- Environmental Technology, Wageningen University and Research, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - David Azoulay
- Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Washington, D.C. 20005, United States
| | - Thomas Backhaus
- Institute for Environmental Research, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Michael G Bertram
- Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå 907 36, Sweden
- Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 114 18, Sweden
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Australia
| | - Bethanie Carney Almroth
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Ian T Cousins
- Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Alex T Ford
- Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO4 9LY, United Kingdom
| | - Joan O Grimalt
- Department of Environmental Chemistry, IDAEA-CSIC, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Yago Guida
- National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba 305-8506, Ibaraki, Japan
- Institute of Biophysics Carlos Chagas Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
| | - Maria C Hansson
- The Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC), Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| | - Yunsun Jeong
- Division of Environmental Health, Korea Environment Institute (KEI), 30147 Sejong, Republic of Korea
| | - Rainer Lohmann
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02881, United States
| | - David Michaels
- Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20052, United States
| | - Leonie Mueller
- Institute for Environmental Research, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
| | - Jane Muncke
- Food Packaging Forum Foundation, 8045 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gunilla Öberg
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Marcos A Orellana
- Global Toxics and Human Rights Project, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
| | - Edmond Sanganyado
- Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, United Kingdom
| | - Ralf Bernhard Schäfer
- Institute for Environmental Sciences Landau, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany
| | - Ishmail Sheriff
- School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
| | - Ryan C Sullivan
- Department of Chemistry and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15217, United States
| | - Noriyuki Suzuki
- National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba 305-8506, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Laura N Vandenberg
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health & Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Marta Venier
- Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States
| | - Penny Vlahos
- Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, Connecticut 06340, United States
| | - Martin Wagner
- Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Fang Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - Mengjiao Wang
- Greenpeace Research Laboratories, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RN, United Kingdom
| | - Anna Soehl
- International Panel on Chemical Pollution, 8044 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Marlene Ågerstrand
- Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Miriam L Diamond
- Department of Earth Sciences and School of the Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3B1, Canada
| | - Martin Scheringer
- Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
- RECETOX, Masaryk University, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
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2
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Ateia M, Sigmund G, Bentel MJ, Washington JW, Lai A, Merrill NH, Wang Z. Integrated data-driven cross-disciplinary framework to prevent chemical water pollution. ONE EARTH (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 6:10.1016/j.oneear.2023.07.001. [PMID: 38264630 PMCID: PMC10802893 DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
Access to a clean and healthy environment is a human right and a prerequisite for maintaining a sustainable ecosystem. Experts across domains along the chemical life cycle have traditionally operated in isolation, leading to limited connectivity between upstream chemical innovation to downstream development of water-treatment technologies. This fragmented and historically reactive approach to managing emerging contaminants has resulted in significant externalized societal costs. Herein, we propose an integrated data-driven framework to foster proactive action across domains to effectively address chemical water pollution. By implementing this integrated framework, it will not only enhance the capabilities of experts in their respective fields but also create opportunities for novel approaches that yield co-benefits across multiple domains. To successfully operationalize the integrated framework, several concerted efforts are warranted, including adopting open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data practices, developing common knowledge bases/platforms, and staying vigilant against new substance "properties" of concern.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed Ateia
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Solutions & Emergency Response, Cincinnati, OH 45220, USA
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Gabriel Sigmund
- Environmental Geosciences, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Josef-Holaubeck-Platz 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
- Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Michael J. Bentel
- Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
| | - John W. Washington
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Athens, GA 30605, USA
| | - Adelene Lai
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, 6 Avenue du Swing, 4367 Belvaux, Luxembourg
- Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller-University, 07743 Jena, Germany
| | - Nathaniel H. Merrill
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Narragansett, RI, USA
| | - Zhanyun Wang
- Empa Swiss – Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Technology and Society Laboratory, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
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3
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Bǎlan S, Andrews DQ, Blum A, Diamond ML, Fernández SR, Harriman E, Lindstrom AB, Reade A, Richter L, Sutton R, Wang Z, Kwiatkowski CF. Optimizing Chemicals Management in the United States and Canada through the Essential-Use Approach. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:1568-1575. [PMID: 36656107 PMCID: PMC9893722 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c05932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Chemicals have improved the functionality and convenience of industrial and consumer products, but sometimes at the expense of human or ecological health. Existing regulatory systems have proven to be inadequate for assessing and managing the tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce. A different approach is urgently needed to minimize ongoing production, use, and exposures to hazardous chemicals. The premise of the essential-use approach is that chemicals of concern should be used only in cases in which their function in specific products is necessary for health, safety, or the functioning of society and when feasible alternatives are unavailable. To optimize the essential-use approach for broader implementation in the United States and Canada, we recommend that governments and businesses (1) identify chemicals of concern for essentiality assessments based on a broad range of hazard traits, going beyond toxicity; (2) expedite decision-making by avoiding unnecessary assessments and strategically asking up to three questions to determine whether the use of the chemical in the product is essential; (3) apply the essential-use approach as early as possible in the process of developing and assessing chemicals; and (4) engage diverse experts in identifying chemical uses and functions, assessing alternatives, and making essentiality determinations and share such information broadly. If optimized and expanded into regulatory systems in the United States and Canada, other policymaking bodies, and businesses, the essential-use approach can improve chemicals management and shift the market toward safer chemistries that benefit human and ecological health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simona
A. Bǎlan
- California
Department of Toxic Substances Control, Sacramento, California 95814, United States
- University
of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
| | - David Q. Andrews
- Environmental
Working Group, Washington, D.C. 20005, United States
| | - Arlene Blum
- University
of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Green
Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, California 94709, United States
| | | | | | - Elizabeth Harriman
- University
of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts 01852, United States
| | | | - Anna Reade
- Natural
Resources Defense Council, San Francisco, California 94104, United States
| | | | - Rebecca Sutton
- San
Francisco Estuary Institute, Richmond, California 94804, United States
| | - Zhanyun Wang
- Empa-Swiss
Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology,
Technology and Society Laboratory, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Institute of Environmental Engineering,
ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Carol F. Kwiatkowski
- Green
Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, California 94709, United States
- North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
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4
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Woodruff TJ, Rayasam SDG, Axelrad DA, Koman PD, Chartres N, Bennett DH, Birnbaum LS, Brown P, Carignan CC, Cooper C, Cranor CF, Diamond ML, Franjevic S, Gartner EC, Hattis D, Hauser R, Heiger-Bernays W, Joglekar R, Lam J, Levy JI, MacRoy PM, Maffini MV, Marquez EC, Morello-Frosch R, Nachman KE, Nielsen GH, Oksas C, Abrahamsson DP, Patisaul HB, Patton S, Robinson JF, Rodgers KM, Rossi MS, Rudel RA, Sass JB, Sathyanarayana S, Schettler T, Shaffer RM, Shamasunder B, Shepard PM, Shrader-Frechette K, Solomon GM, Subra WA, Vandenberg LN, Varshavsky JR, White RF, Zarker K, Zeise L. A science-based agenda for health-protective chemical assessments and decisions: overview and consensus statement. Environ Health 2023; 21:132. [PMID: 36635734 PMCID: PMC9835243 DOI: 10.1186/s12940-022-00930-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The manufacture and production of industrial chemicals continues to increase, with hundreds of thousands of chemicals and chemical mixtures used worldwide, leading to widespread population exposures and resultant health impacts. Low-wealth communities and communities of color often bear disproportionate burdens of exposure and impact; all compounded by regulatory delays to the detriment of public health. Multiple authoritative bodies and scientific consensus groups have called for actions to prevent harmful exposures via improved policy approaches. We worked across multiple disciplines to develop consensus recommendations for health-protective, scientific approaches to reduce harmful chemical exposures, which can be applied to current US policies governing industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants. This consensus identifies five principles and scientific recommendations for improving how agencies like the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approach and conduct hazard and risk assessment and risk management analyses: (1) the financial burden of data generation for any given chemical on (or to be introduced to) the market should be on the chemical producers that benefit from their production and use; (2) lack of data does not equate to lack of hazard, exposure, or risk; (3) populations at greater risk, including those that are more susceptible or more highly exposed, must be better identified and protected to account for their real-world risks; (4) hazard and risk assessments should not assume existence of a "safe" or "no-risk" level of chemical exposure in the diverse general population; and (5) hazard and risk assessments must evaluate and account for financial conflicts of interest in the body of evidence. While many of these recommendations focus specifically on the EPA, they are general principles for environmental health that could be adopted by any agency or entity engaged in exposure, hazard, and risk assessment. We also detail recommendations for four priority areas in companion papers (exposure assessment methods, human variability assessment, methods for quantifying non-cancer health outcomes, and a framework for defining chemical classes). These recommendations constitute key steps for improved evidence-based environmental health decision-making and public health protection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracey J Woodruff
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA.
| | - Swati D G Rayasam
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
| | | | - Patricia D Koman
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Nicholas Chartres
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
| | - Deborah H Bennett
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Linda S Birnbaum
- National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
- Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Phil Brown
- Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Courtney C Carignan
- Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Courtney Cooper
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
| | - Carl F Cranor
- Department of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
- Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - Miriam L Diamond
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- School of the Environment, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | | | - Dale Hattis
- The George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Russ Hauser
- Department of Environmental Health, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Wendy Heiger-Bernays
- Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Juleen Lam
- Department of Public Health, California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA
| | - Jonathan I Levy
- Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Rachel Morello-Frosch
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Keeve E Nachman
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Johns Hopkins Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Greylin H Nielsen
- Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Catherine Oksas
- School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Dimitri Panagopoulos Abrahamsson
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
| | - Heather B Patisaul
- Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Human Health and the Environment, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | | | - Joshua F Robinson
- Program On Reproductive Health and the Environment, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 10, Box 0132, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
- Center for Reproductive Sciences, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Sheela Sathyanarayana
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Child Health, Behavior, and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Ted Schettler
- Science and Environmental Health Network, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Rachel M Shaffer
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, USA
| | - Bhavna Shamasunder
- Department of Urban & Environmental Policy and Public Health, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Kristin Shrader-Frechette
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
- Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Gina M Solomon
- School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Public Health Institute, Oakland, CA, USA
| | - Wilma A Subra
- Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
| | - Laura N Vandenberg
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health & Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Julia R Varshavsky
- Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Roberta F White
- Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ken Zarker
- Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA, USA
| | - Lauren Zeise
- Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency, Oakland, CA, USA
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