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Including acids; caustic substances; disinfectants; glues; pesticides; solvents; flame retardants; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); fluorides; and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
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Unmanaged and improperly managed pollutants are having a dire impact on human health and are major contributors to the global climate and nature loss crises. Increasing levels of pollution also have significant economic impacts and reduce the productivity, cleanliness, liveability, and overall resilience of communities.
Businesses have a crucial role to play in protecting people and nature. Anchored in research, our Pollutants in Air and Water: A Getting Started Guide aims to support your company as it develops a strategy to eliminate pollutants from its own operations and in its value chain.
This comprehensive guide was created by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for policy-makers, lawmakers, and technical experts, including industrial stakeholders and environmental impact assessment practitioners. It was created to offer quantitative, health-based recommendations for air quality, with the ultimate goal of providing guidance that can help to reduce the burden of pollutants on health worldwide. It provides specific recommendations on a range of air pollutants, including particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and more. It also provides recommendations for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the guidelines.
The WHO's Air Pollution Data Portal can help you to quickly access data and databases, factsheets, interactive tools, and key publications on ambient and household air pollution.
The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework created to promote chemical safety around the world. Their strategic approach focuses on risk reduction; knowledge and information; governance; capacity-building and technical cooperation; and illegal international traffic. SAICM is an excellent source if you want to take a deep dive into issues related to hazardous chemicals. They have an expansive library of articles, videos, reviews, databases, e-learning resources, reports, and more on topics related to chemicals, and they lead communities of practice on a range of cross-cutting themes.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a multilateral environmental agreement to protect human health and the environment from such harmful chemicals. This site is your one-stop shop for learning more about POPs. It provides essential information on initial and newly identified POPs; reports and decisions from the Convention; and brochures, leaflets, fact sheets, guidance manuals, and other publications.
This primer can help familiarise you with the topic of toxic waste, including common sources, regulations, and management.
This report from GRI can help you to better understand the state of corporate action on air pollution. Based on research of 1,000 companies, it provides analysis by sector on a range of airborne pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and persistent organic pollutants. The report reveals that measurement of air pollution continues to be poor; almost all companies that were evaluated (91%) were found to have published a sustainability report, yet fewer than 40% mention one or more specific air pollutants, and even fewer have set or monitor progress on reduction targets.
This report from Planet Tracker can help you to understand the scope and scale of the PFAS contamination crisis. It explains why PFAS-related litigation matters; unpacks the drivers of PFAS litigation risk; provides key action insights for companies and investors; and more. This resource will be especially beneficial to sustainability and risk professionals.