In 2019, chemicals in the environment reportedly accounted for two million
deaths and 53 million disability-adjusted life years worldwide — says the State of India’s Environment 2025 report, quoting WHO data.
“In the Anthropocene age, human-made chemicals are not only “forever”, but have also become “everywhere” pollutants. From high in the atmosphere to deep inside oceans, from soils and trees to uninhabited regions – they are everywhere”: says the State of India’s Environment 2025 report, released here yesterday.
The report was released at the Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2025, an annual conclave of journalists from India who write on environment and development issues. Over 80 journalists from across the country are participating in this one-of-its-kind platform, organised every year by CSE at its facility, the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, located in Nimli, Rajasthan.
CSE director general Sunita Narain released the report along with India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant; former deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia; and management and financial guru Raj Liberhan.
Over the next three days, the media conclave will touch upon a wide range of issues – from human-animal conflicts in India and the phenomena of urban heat islands and warm nights to India’s targets on renewable energy and the return of zoonotic diseases and outbreaks.
The chemical clutter:
Anchoring a special session at the Dialogue yesterday on ‘chemicals in the environment’, Down To Earth said: “In 2019, chemicals in the environment reportedly accounted for two million deaths worldwide. New chemicals are often released into the market before we have fully understood their impacts. As a result, there are gaps in our understanding of the scale and threat of the risks posed by them in our environment.”
According to the World Health Organization, some 160 million chemicals are known to humans. Data from the Chemicals Abstracts Service, a global inventory of these substances, indicates that countries across the world are making, using and importing some 60,000 chemicals that are not well understood and regulated.
The State of India’s Environment 2025 report says humans have “synthesised some 140,000 chemicals and mixtures of chemicals”. These are chemicals that did not exist till a few decades ago. New chemicals are being invented and developed at an unprecedented rate. As per 2019 data, the US produces an average of 1,500 new substances a year.
DTE added “Naturally, the rate at which chemicals are released into the environment is also very high. Annually, some 220 billion tonne of chemicals are released. In fact, humans are responsible for pumping in 65 kg of cancer-causing chemicals every second into the atmosphere.”
Speaking at the Dialogue, Dr Donthi N Reddy, visiting senior fellow, Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, said: “We are indiscriminately using pesticides in our rural regions – 255,000 tonne every year – when even a single gramme is lethal.”
The disease burden:
According to Down To Earth“Once they into our bodies, synthetic chemicals first encounter the lungs, skin and gut. They can also travel through the bloodstream to affect other organs like the kidneys or the immune system. They can enter individual cells and affect how instructions in the DNA are converted into protein. Long terms exposure to chemicals leads to a range of health issues such as cancer, organ damage, weakening of the immune system, development of allergies or asthma etc.”
The State of India’s Environment report asks if the world has reached a critical situation in terms of chemical pollution – aside from it accounting for two million deaths (2019, WHO), 53 million disability-adjusted life years have also been lost due to exposures to certain chemicals.
(A CSE Media briefing, edited by Pratyusha Mukherjee)
