Harmful chemicals as a children’s rights problem

Prevalence of harmful chemicals

Every day, thousands of the chemicals used in manufacturing and sometimes ending up in the final products have hazardous properties, presenting immediate dangers to health as well as persistent risks through their accumulation and persistence in the environment, notably in water. ³⁰ Chemicals can also affect ecosystems, harming aquatic life directly and even causing endocrine disorders in the wider ecology. ³¹

In the EU, the European Environmental Agency (EEA) estimated that around 100,000 synthetic chemicals were on the market in 2019.³² Of these, only 500 have been extensively characterised for their hazards and exposures, while the effects of a further 70,000 remain poorly understood.³³

One example of fast-evolving knowledge on hazardous substances is endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). ³⁴ EDCs can mimic, block, or interfere with hormones, leading to severe health issues, particularly for children, impairing their development, causing brain damage, and increasing the risk of cancers, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. ³⁵ 800 substances are known or suspected to be EDCs. Many are present in common consumer products, including food-contact materials, toys, cosmetics, hygiene products, and pesticides. Some estimates place the number of EDCs on the EU market at over 1,000, with more substances joining the list annually. ³⁶

A European Parliament discussion paper encourages decision-makers to “adopt precautionary measures when scientific evidence about an environmental or human health hazard is uncertain and the stakes are high”. ³⁷ In a similar vein, the former UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights Baskut Tuncak argued that “the best interests of the child are best served by preventing exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution, and taking precautionary measures with respect to those substances whose risks are not well understood”. ³⁸

A disproportionate impact on children

All humans are vulnerable to the effects of exposure to hazardous chemicals, but children are more susceptible than adults on account of their smaller bodies and particular behavioural habits.³⁹ Children play on the ground and in watercourses. They explore the world through touch and taste.⁴⁰ Children may be exposed to higher intake than adults, as they for instance breathe more often per minute.⁴¹ They also consume more food and water relative to their body weight, absorb substances more readily, and are less able to excrete them afterwards through their underdeveloped organs, particularly the liver and kidneys. On account of their age, children are also less able to evaluate and react to the risks, for instance reading labels and adopting protective behaviours. As children are exposed to hazardous chemicals in multiple ways, the cocktail of substances can combine to amplify harm to health while reciprocally degrading natural resilience and extending vulnerability to further exposure.⁴²

The science clearly shows that environmental exposure in early life can play a pivotal and irreversible role in children’s health right into adulthood and even carry over to succeeding generations.⁴³ Harmful impacts include childhood cancers,⁴⁴ IQ loss,⁴⁵ asthma,⁴⁶ diabetes,⁴⁷ obesity,⁴⁸ and disruption in bone development.⁴⁹

Contamination can also occur before birth, as children can be born “pre-polluted” due to their exposure during foetal development.⁵⁰ This can lead to irreversible effects.⁵¹ As mentioned by University of Florida’s Senior Program Scientist Theo Colborn, “the development of each stage of life is fully under the control of hormones. Changes that happen during development are far less reversible [than those occurring in an adult]; you can't go back and rewire the brain.”⁵²

In addition to harming children’s health directly, ecological degradation caused by harmful substances jeopardises food security and long-term economic prospects of millions of children around the world, including across the EU.⁵³ It also contributes to biodiversity loss.⁵⁴ For instance, flame retardants, as environmentally persistent chemicals with serious health effects,⁵⁵ have been linked to contamination of more than 100 species, including endangered species such as killer whales, northern sea otters, red pandas, and chimpanzees. This group of chemicals may even be responsible in part for population declines in some of those species.⁵⁶ These ecological harms feed back to amplify the impact on children, by depleting the ecosystem on which their families depend for food and work.⁵⁷

A significant indirect harm of hazardous chemicals lies in the financial burden they leave with children’s families. In 2015, for example, a series of studies estimated that exposure to EDCs in the EU was likely costing €157 billion ($209 billion) annually in health care expenses and lost earning potential.⁵⁸ Families, healthcare facilities, and local authorities have been footing the bill when the burden should be carried by businesses, in line with the “polluter pays” principle.⁵⁹

Compounded harm to marginalised children

Freedom from discrimination: Principle versus practice

The UNCRC (Article 2), European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (Article 14), and EU Charter on Fundamental Rights (Article 21) all prohibit discrimination unequivocally. The Charter also guarantees equality before the law (Article 20).

The EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 2021, further recognises that “every child in Europe and across the world should enjoy the same rights and live free from discrimination and intimidation of any kind”, while accurately stressing that children continue to suffer from socioeconomic exclusion and discrimination.

In contrast to these legal standards, children in marginalised groups in the EU and globally experience continuous, discriminatory exposure to hazardous chemicals. They suffer a disproportionate impact also: while weaker regulations in poorer countries allow toxicity to persist and accumulate where children live, learn and play, poorer health associated with economic deprivation reduces resilience, particularly when children are malnourished. 92% of pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).⁶⁰ The EU Chemicals Strategy itself warns that chemical pollution is recognised to be a threat to the right to a life with dignity, notably for children, and in particular in LMICs.⁶¹

A review paper from the United States, published in 2023, is instructive.⁶² Drawing on more than 200 studies, it analysed “disparities in toxic chemical exposures and associated neurodevelopmental outcomes”. It found that racial and ethnic minority and low-income children are disproportionately harmed by exposure to neurotoxicants: substances that interfere with normal function or compromise adaptation in the nervous system. Emphasising an association between racial inequities, environmental exposures, and illnesses, the review concluded that effective actions must include measures to reduce structural inequities.

As the situation stands, decades and even centuries of colonialism, imperialism, wealth hoarding, systemic discrimination, and corruption have led to a small percentage of communities worldwide owning most of the resources. Environmental and health crises, including climate change and pandemics, further entrench discrimination against marginalised children, exacerbating vulnerability further.

Europe is similarly affected by patterns of discrimination and oppression. Many children on the continent are severely affected by chemical pollution, such as those in farming families or living near chemical plants, who may already be socio-economically marginalised and thus less able in general to avoid the hazards, cope with them, obtain suitable health support, or access avenues for redress. ⁶³ In 2016, Baskut Tuncak stressed that “children who live in or around locations of widespread pollution or contamination may [also] be subject to painful harassment and discrimination”.⁶⁴

Children in “sacrifice zones”

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment David Boyd has warned of the environmental injustices that culminate in “sacrifice zones”.⁶⁵ These extremely contaminated areas include, for example, concentrations of open-pit mining, smelters, refineries, chemical plants and waste dumps, which tend to be near economically marginalised communities, including in the EU. Here, warns David Boyd, “vulnerable and marginalised groups bear a disproportionate burden”,⁶⁶ such that states and businesses must do more to prevent pollution, including by eliminating the use of toxic substances and rehabilitating contaminated sites.⁶⁷

Children suffering from exposure in sacrifice zones tend to endure other forms of pollution disproportionately also. Within EU countries, poorer communities are more likely to live in areas with the worst air pollution, for example. Between countries, those with the lowest income tend to be most affected by pollutants in general. Both illustrate structural environmental injustice in the bloc.⁶⁸

Principles of protection

Protecting marginalised children from harmful chemicals is not only a matter of mitigating the impact; it also requires prevention and remedy. The drivers of marginalisation itself must be faced, such as the discrimination that is baked into housing/zoning plans, for example, and barriers to healthcare, justice, and compensation. Supporting the most affected communities facing chemical pollution means for the EU, governments and companies to undertake a broad set of actions, including the prevention of chemical pollution, its mitigation as well as its remediation.

Footnotes