Documents Center for International Environmental Law, Washington DC 9 results

"A new analysis exposes how the American and European pesticide industry is using ongoing EU-US trade negotiations to lower human health and environmental standards in order to increase trade in toxic pesticides. A new study by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Lowest Common Denominator: How the EU-US trade deal threatens to lower standards of protection from toxic pesticides, tracks how CropLife America and the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) propose to use the ongoing Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations to lower levels of protection in the EU relative to those in the US. If adopted, the pesticide industry proposal would increase the amount of pesticide residue on food sold to consumers in Europe; allow the use of carcinogens, endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and others toxic pesticides; and interfere with efforts to protect bees and other pollinators to safeguard food supplies for future generations."

"This report deals with the challenges, risks and possibilities of nanotechnology. Current discussions on defining nanomaterials, the lack of knowledge of the presence of products containing nanomaterials currently on the global markets, and some regulatory initiatives for the management of nanomaterials internationally, regionally, and nationally are addressed. The special needs and challenges for developing countries and economies in transition are touched upon. The intention is not to give a complete and in-depth review of the current status in the field of science and regulation of nanomaterials, rather to give the Swedish and international public, and decision makers, an overview in the topic. It can aid decision makers in finding the right priorities, without defining the exact actions to take. Based on the report, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, however, does reflect on some concrete actions to be taken by Swedish decision makers. This is reflected only in the preface of the report."

"Despite being one of the most pervasive materials on the planet, plastic and its impact on human health is poorly understood. Human exposure to it grows with increasing plastic production and use. Research into the human health impacts of plastic to date have focused narrowly on specific moments in the plastic lifecycle, from wellhead to refinery, from store shelves to human bodies, and from disposal to ongoing impacts as air pollutants and ocean plastic. Individually, each stage of the plastic lifecycle poses significant risks to human health. Together, the lifecycle impacts of plastic paint an unequivocally toxic picture: plastic threatens human health on a global scale."

"Amidst a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, the oil, gas, and plastic industries are exploiting the crisis by aggressively lobbying for massive bailouts and special privileges in a desperate attempt to revive an oil and gas industry already in decline.
Pandemic Crisis, Systemic Decline: Why Exploiting the COVID-19 Crisis Will Not Save the Oil, Gas, and Plastic Industries documents how long-term systemic declines in the oil and gas industry had been accumulating long before the coronavirus pandemic emerged. Compounded by the impacts of the pandemic and related economic crisis, the industry's collapse has accelerated, with leading companies losing an average of 45% of their value since the start of 2020. "

"Governments require substantial management capabilities and infrastructure in order to effectively develop, implement and enforce laws, policies and regulations governing the sound management of chemicals and wastes. However, most countries presently lack sufficient national management capacity and the financial resources needed to protect human health and the environment. A very small tax could yield significantly more annual funding than has ever been allocated for sound chemicals and wastes management.
Substantial new and additional funds will be needed if there is to be a sincere global effort to achieve the sound management of chemicals and wastes. Funding from donor governments and from current revenue streams will not be sufficient to establish and sustain the programs and infrastructures that will be required to effectively protect the public's health and the environment from chemical exposures and accidents in all countries. Securing sufficient funds on a sustainable basis will require the internalization of costs within relevant producer industries."

"We are increasingly living on a plastic planet. Due to the explosion in plastic production and use, plastic pollution has grown exponentially in recent years. Tiny particles of plastic — or microplastic — are accumulating across the planet in even the most remote areas, in the air, in water, in soil, in plants, and in animals, including in our bodies. Humans are ingesting and breathing plastics and the toxins they contain through this continued environmental exposure.
One of the least known and most concerning sources of microplastic pollution is their deliberate addition to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides used in industrial agriculture. The application of plastic-coated agrochemicals to soils and crops directly introduces microplastic into the environment and potentially into the food supply. It also compounds the health and environmental hazards posed by agrochemicals themselves.
Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, derived primarily from oil- and gas-based feedstocks, are already some of the most toxic substances in use today. Encapsulating them in microplastic, itself fossil fuel in another form, only heightens the risks. Because of its deliberate and controlled nature, microplastic pollution from plastic-coated agrochemicals is especially egregious, but it is also readily preventable. The only barriers are public awareness of the problem and political will to tackle it at its source by regulating the plastics industry.
Sowing a Plastic Planet: How Microplastics in Agrochemicals Are Affecting Our Soils, Our Food, and Our Future exposes the growing use of microplastics in agrochemical products, the industry's promotion of this practice, and its threats to human health and the environment. It concludes that, in the face of known risks and the significant probability that plastic-coated fertilizers and pesticides only add to existing harm from toxic chemicals and microplastic, their production and use should be banned."

"Smoke and Fumes: The Legal and Evidentiary Basis for Holding Big Oil Accountable for the Climate Crisis presents a comprehensive synthesis of the available evidence on what the oil industry knew about climate science, when they knew it, and what they did with the information. It combines that synthesis with an update on the latest developments in accountability research and science, which have dramatically improved our ability to identify the impacts of climate change on individuals and communities, the corporate actors that contributed to those impacts, and the nature of their contributions. The report presents this evidence in the context of the core elements of legal responsibility in tort and human rights law. It concludes that oil industry actors had early knowledge of climate risks and important opportunities to act on those risks, but repeatedly failed to do so. Those failures give raise to potential legal responsibilities under an array of legal theories."