Consumption and the environment (SOER2010) - European ...

Thematic assessment | Consumption and the environment
Box 2.1 Consumption and chemicals
There is growing concern about the potential human health and environmental impacts of chemicals in consumer
products, in particular persistent and bio-accumulative organic compounds, endocrine-disrupting chemicals and heavy
metals used in plastics, lubricants, textiles, cosmetics, dyestuffs, flame retardants, wood preservatives, electronic
goods, and food packaging. Exposure to these chemicals is thought to be linked with declining sperm counts, genital
malformations, impaired neural development and sexual behaviour, obesity, and cancer. Many of these chemicals leach
easily from the products and can be found in the environment — in ambient (urban) air, indoor dust, wastewater,
sludge — in some cases at levels high enough to be of health concern (Fisher et al., 2006). Some are highly persistent
in the environment where they may undergo further transformation. For example, it has recently been shown that
the flame retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) exposed to wastewater treatment can generate dioxins
(Betts, 2009 — orig. Steen et al., 2009). Widely-used plasticisers such as phthalates and bisphenol A; perfluorinated
chemicals used in a variety of commercial applications as water, oil, soil and grease repellents; and brominated flame
retardants are most often discussed in this context due to their suspected health effects and ubiquitous presence in
the environment. A matter of particular concern is exposure to a mixture of low levels of chemical compounds that
may exert synergistic effects, especially in unborn and very young, vulnerable children (ULSOP, 2009).
representing 268 out of Europe's 501 million people
(Eurostat, 2010) and allocated them to final consumption
categories. The estimates were made using a single
region input-output model.
The majority of four key environmental pressures
caused by private and public consumption ( 7 ) can be
allocated to the consumption of food and drink, housing
and infrastructure, and mobility. These three broad
consumption areas are estimated to have contributed
68 % of GHG emissions, 73 % of acidifying emissions,
69 % of tropospheric ozone precursor emissions and 64 %
of the direct and indirect material input caused globally
by consumption in 2005 in the nine countries (EEA
and ETC/SCP, 2010; ETC/SCP, 2009). The same critical
consumption areas have been identified in other key
studies (for example, JRC/IPTS, 2006).
It should be noted that the single region methodology
used for these calculations assumes that imported goods
are produced with the same resource inputs and emissions
per unit output as those produced domestically. For
example, agricultural products imported to Sweden are
assumed to have emitted the same volume of GHGs as if
they had been produced in Sweden. This assumption will
considerably underestimate GHGs embedded in imports
from countries with less efficient production processes
(see Rørmose et al., 2009, for Denmark) and thus affect
estimates for consumption-based footprints of countries.
However, the share of pressures allocated to different
consumption categories is expected to be much less
affected.
For other environmental pressure categories not covered
by these analyses, for example, land degradation, other
consumption areas might also be as relevant or even
more important, for example tourism for degradation
of coastal habitats, chemicals in consumer products
for health impacts and eco-toxicological impacts (see
Box 2.1).
Pressures caused directly and indirectly along the
production chain of consumed goods and services plus
direct pressures created during private consumption can
be allocated to 12 broad categories of private household
consumption as defined under the Classification of
Individual Consumption according to Purpose (COICOP)
nomenclature used by Eurostat. When pressures caused
by private consumption are allocated to these 12 main
areas, food, housing and mobility dominate, followed by
furnishings and household equipment (Figure 2.4).
The dominance of the first three is partly due to their also
being the three private consumption categories in the EU‐27
with highest expenditure (Eurostat, 2009a). However, food
and mobility, and to a lesser extent housing, are also the
areas of private expenditure with the greatest pressures
for each euro spent (Figure 2.5). These three areas are
addressed in more detail in Chapters 4–6 of this assessment.
Chapter 5 on housing also covers furnishings and
household equipment. A fourth area, tourism is considered
in Chapter 7 because of its fast growing contribution to
environmental pressures from consumption. The pressures
caused by public consumption, meanwhile, can be partially
tackled through green public procurement. This is looked at
in more detail in Chapter 8.
Decoupling environmental pressures from growth in
private consumption can be achieved by reducing the
pressure intensities within individual consumption
categories — through improvements in housing energy
efficiency, switching transport expenditure from private
( 7 ) Including fixed capital formation — investments in machinery, roads, water and sewage networks and other infrastructure.
The European environment | State and outlook 2010
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