Chemical pollution: “we need an international body of the same scientific scope as the IPCC”

Chemical pollution is responsible for 1.8 million deaths per year worldwide, according to a 2022

Lancet

study . And that's without counting the impact on biodiversity. Around ten researchers and politicians signed an article in

Le Monde

on February 2 . They call for the urgent creation of an “IPCC for chemical pollution”. The IPCC, the intergovernmental group of experts on climate change, which produces reference reports intended to guide global decision-makers. 

Chemical pollutants are everywhere. Illustrative image. Getty Images/Westend61 - Westend61

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Chemical pollutants are everywhere, in the air, in drinks, in food, in everyday objects. And their biological effects on

health

are significant with the development of cancers, reproductive and developmental disorders, and diabetes.

Read alsoEnvironment: water in France massively contaminated by chlorothalonil metabolites

Yves Lévi, vice-president of the Foundation of the Academy of Medicine, professor emeritus of public health at Paris Saclay University, defends the existence of “

an IPCC for chemical pollution

”, that is to say a independent, scientific and international structure: “

So that all countries can talk to each other and have in common documents that are objective, scientific, independent of policies and independent of countries, there must be an international body of the same scientific scope that is the IPCC, but which is dedicated to this problem of global chemical pollution. The United Nations National Program decided in a final meeting held in Nairobi in December to launch a project that could look like this. But we are in something that is still too slow, which is still only a project in its infancy 

.”

The

Foundation of the Academy of Medicine

 is convinced that chemical pressure can be compared to climatic pressure. She published a white paper on chemical pollution and public health, which she presented to deputies in the National Assembly on January 31 in order to raise awareness of the costs generated by the health deterioration caused by these pollutants. 

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Read the column in

Le Monde

Also read: A study shows that “eternal pollutants” are present even in toilet paper

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