Number of industrial chemicals is much higher than expected
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) have identified far more industrial chemicals than previously officially recorded. Instead of 100,000 as previously assumed, around 350,000 industrial chemicals are produced and traded worldwide. A good third of these are inadequately described.
The last survey of all industrial chemicals traded worldwide produced a list of 100,000 entries, according to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH). In the survey carried out at the turn of the millennium, the focus was on the USA, Canada and Western Europe, it continues. In the meantime, however, the global West is only involved in a third of the worldwide chemicals trade.
China accounts for 37 percent of chemicals trade
China, on the other hand, now accounts for "37 percent of sales alone". In addition, global sales of chemicals have more than doubled in the years since the turn of the millennium to 3.4 trillion euros in 2017.
In a new survey, a group of international scientists with the participation of ETH Zurich therefore "expanded the view to the global market", explains Zhanyun Wang, Senior Scientist at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich, in the press release. In the process, "for the first time, a comprehensive overview of all chemicals available worldwide" has been compiled, says Wang.
The new list contains 350,000 entries. The inventory of chemicals is only "the very first step in characterising the substances", says Wang. According to him, about a third of the chemicals are not described at all or only inadequately: "Only the manufacturers know what these substances are like and how dangerous or toxic they are.
Urgent appeal
Globalization and worldwide trade ensure that chemicals - in contrast to national inventories - do not adhere to national borders. It is therefore imperative that the various inventories be merged if mankind is to continue to keep track of all the chemicals that are produced and then traded somewhere in the world, Wang and his colleagues note in their paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology published contribution to.
"Only by joining forces across countries and disciplines will we be able to cope with the ever-increasing chemical diversity," Wang says.
Literature reference:
Wang Z, Walker GW, Muir DCG, and Nagatani-Yoshida K. Toward a Global Understanding of Chemical Pollution: A First Comprehensive Analysis of National and Regional Chemical Inventories. Environ Sci Technol. (2020) DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b06379
