recent UN report<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nExposure occurs throughout the chemicals\u2019 lifecycle \u2013 from production sites to contaminated water, food and consumer products \u2013 raising risks to hormone systems, liver function and immune function.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PFAS can even cross the placenta and have been detected in umbilical cord blood and breast milk, exposing people at particularly sensitive stages of development, the report stressed.<\/p>\n
Ms. Carney Almroth noted that PFAS impair the right to life, health, a healthy environment, a safe and healthy working environment along with access to information, \u201cjustice and remedy\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Global justice issue<\/p>\n
The consequences of toxic pollution are not distributed equally, making it \u201can issue of global environmental justice,\u201d she stressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PFAS are mostly manufactured in industrialised States and spread globally through emissions, trade, and transboundary movements of PFAS-contaminated waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet communities already facing poverty, discrimination and marginalisation \u2013 notably workers, women, children, Indigenous Peoples, and people of African descent \u2013 are \u201cexposed first and worst\u201d, Ms Carney Almroth underscored.<\/p>\n
\u201cA human-rights based approach requires us to ask not simply how much pollution exists, but who is poisoned, and who benefits? Who bears the costs, and who makes the rules?\u201d she explained, laying out her vision for her new mandate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Act now<\/p>\n
As a former professor of ecotoxicology \u2013 how all living organisms are impacted by toxic pollutants \u2013 Ms. Carney Almroth stressed that she wants her new position to be dedicated to \u201c[moving] upstream.\u201d<\/p>\n
This means not only addressing how to clean up toxic pollution once it has occurred but also preventing unnecessary or dangerous contamination in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She recalled the UN report\u2019s conclusion calling for an urgent ban on all non-essential uses of PFAS, citing that when pollution is potentially irreversible, waiting for complete certainty about its longevity and the dangers it may cause can itself create lasting harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms. Carney Almroth also wants to make sure States, courts, and other partners have access to reliable information on toxic pollution to enable more effective policymaking, highlighting the need to \u201cprotect independent science from conflicts of interest, disinformation and manufactured doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also wants to make sure everyone\u2019s voice is heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScience can help us identify harm. Human rights tell us why that harm matters, whose rights\u00a0must be protected, and where responsibilities lie. The knowledge and experience of affected\u00a0people help us understand what meaningful solutions require,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Special Rapporteurs and other independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council<\/a> are not UN staff and they receive no salary for their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethanie Carney Almroth \u2013 an environmental scientist and researcher in the field who took up her post in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-625843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}