Hazardous chemicals affect human health and the environment throughout their life cycle, from extraction and import to disposal of waste after end of use. Protecting health through chemicals’ life cycle is about reducing risks at each of these stages.
This training for nominees from Member States of the WHO European Region will provide:
- an overview of the life-cycle thinking approach;
- a demonstration of how the life-cycle approach is used for mercury within the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The example includes information on mercury in products, waste management, economic considerations, and the use of human biomonitoring in evaluating the effectiveness of policy implementation, in this case – the Minamata Convention; and
- information on national experiences, to facilitate ratification and implementation of the Convention.
Participants will also have the opportunity to practice the identification of main elements of health protection strategies through chemicals’ life cycle and planning the involvement of stakeholders (for example, elements of the strategy to involve stakeholders in actions aiming to phase out mercury-containing measuring devices from health care), and basics of economic considerations.
Why use the life-cycle approach?
The life-cycle approach is a pillar principle for the sound management of chemicals and the adoption of sustainable economic models, applicable to both individual chemicals and chemical products. It contributes to achieving sustainable production and consumption by looking at the entire life of chemicals and chemical products. Its analyses enable a holistic and integral approach for planning stakeholder involvement, risk reduction measures, information flow, and identification of health and environment risks, releases and emissions.
Mercury and its compounds provide a good example of the application of these concepts. All forms of mercury are toxic for human health and the environment, but are still used in industry. The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global agreement that entered into force in 2017, aims to reduce or eliminate the use of mercury to protect human health and the environment. It regulates mercury and its compounds, taking into account the life cycle of mercury and its compounds, and is based on strong scientific knowledge.