Women and Chemicals

What are the main
harmful substances that
women are exposed to?
Thousands of chemicals are currently on the market worldwide. Exact numbers
are difficult to know. In the EU there are more than 140 000 chemicals used and
traded. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, about 700 new
chemicals are introduced each year. 1
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For the majority of chemicals on the market we do not know
their full environmental and health effects – not to mention the
lack of knowledge on mixtures of those chemicals. One of the
biggest unknowns at the moment is probably manufactured nanomaterials.
They are not adequately controlled by regulation,
nor undergo sufficient hazard and risk assessment. Despite the
fact that we know very little in general about environmental and
health effects of chemicals, we know even less about harmful
effects of chemicals for women’s health. The current knowledge
on socioeconomic and health effects of hazardous chemicals on
women is minuscule. Much more research is needed to gain
gender disaggregated data on exposure scenarios and socioeconomic
and health effects of chemicals. Ultimately this data could
be basis of precautionary based legislation.
Limited comprehensive information is available, but some
institutions do list chemicals of concern, also for women.
Existing lists of harmful chemicals
Many different kinds of lists exist and are mainly used as tools
for prioritizing action. The Global Chemical Outlook 2013 presents
an excellent compilation of existing lists from governments,
NGOs, trade unions and industry. 2 None of the lists
mentioned address specifically the needs of women or take
women’s different susceptibility specifically into account. The
only ones that have a more direct link to women are the lists
referring to cosmetics, like the skin deep database of the US
based NGO Environmental Working Group, which provides
information about the ingredients in cosmetics. Other lists
like the GoodGuide inform about chemicals in products such
as food, detergents or personal care products. Third party labels
like the Nordic Swan, EU Ecolabel or the German Blue
Angel should guide consumers towards more environmentally
friendly products.
FAO and WHO developed criteria to identify highly hazardous
pesticides (HHPs) including for acute toxicity; carcinogenicity,
mutagenicity and reproductive toxicity based on categories
1A and 1B of the Global Harmonized System (GHS); and pesticides
known to cause a high incidence of severe or irreversible
adverse effects. The NGO Pesticide Action Network (PAN) developed
a list of HHPs, based on the FAO/WHO criteria with additional
indicators for endocrine disruption, high environmental
concern and hazard to ecosystem services. This list contains currently
426 pesticide active ingredients. 3 Neither sets of criteria
differentiate between harmful effects on women and men.
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