Towards a Safe and Sustainable Future: Mitigating environmental pollution across the chemical life-cycle

Human-made synthetic chemicals play a vital role in our society and economy, offering numerous benefits. However, their usage, production, and disposal have adverse environmental consequences, impacting both human and ecological health. Even though chemicals’ management improved over the last decades due to legislation, many issues related to chemical pollution still persist and additional mitigation options should be developed and implemented. This dissertation focussed on the identification and assessment of multiple mitigation options over the chemical life cycle -focussing on the design, registration, use and waste stages- in order to help reduce chemical emissions into the environment in a more comprehensive manner, thereby contributing to environmental policy ambitions. Chapter 2 underscores the importance of clear policy objectives to enhance chemicals and waste management. Key issues overlooked in European policy ambitions but vital for effective chemical management are identified, with a focus on providing guidance to decision-makers and scientists. In Chapter 3, focusses on the chemical design and production stage, contributing to the development of Safe and Sustainable chemicals. A systematic and computer-aided workflow is proposed and tested that can facilitate the design of chemicals for reduced environmental hazards whilst also taking sustainability parameters into account. Chapter 4 addresses the registration and market entry phase of chemicals, analysing risk assessment procedures for biocides, industrial chemicals, pesticides and medicines for human and veterinary use. Discrepancies in environmental protection goals and assessment strategies across these frameworks are identified, which result in inconsistent assessments and the continued marketing of banned substances. The chapter offers recommendations to harmonize registration frameworks and move towards a ‘one substance-one assessment’ approach. Chapter 5 focuses on identifying and replacing sub