Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn

More than 100 million novel entity' chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognised

Chemical pollution is a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change" but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned.

The industrial economy has created more than 100 million novel entities", or chemicals not found in nature, with somewhere between 40,000 and 350,000 in commercial use and production, the report says. But the environmental and human health effects of this widespread contamination of the biosphere are not widely appreciated, in spite of a growing body of evidence linking chemical toxicity with effects ranging from ADHD to infertility to cancer.