Forever Chemicals Fuel Unequal Pollution Burden as UN Expert Calls for Urgent Bans

Carney Almroth said her mandate would focus on preventing toxic pollution before damage occurs, supported by a stronger connection between scientific knowledge and human rights.

For families living near factories and waste sites, chemical pollution can mean facing risks that continue far beyond the moment hazardous substances enter their surroundings. The growing scale and complexity of this pollution are placing an unequal burden on vulnerable communities, UN expert Bethanie Carney Almroth warned, calling for stronger action to prevent harm and protect people's rights to life, health and a healthy environment.

Speaking at her first interactive dialogue with the UN Human Rights Council, Carney Almroth described the disproportionate and lasting effects experienced by people living close to industrial production and waste facilities. The Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes placed prevention, environmental justice and accountability at the centre of her priorities, stressing that responses must reach beyond managing pollution after communities have already suffered.

Forever Chemicals Leave a Lasting Burden

Presenting work by her predecessor, Marcos Orellana, Carney Almroth highlighted the dangers posed by PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals, and their implications for the effective enjoyment of human rights. Some of these substances do not readily break down once released into the environment, creating contamination problems that can persist without an effective solution. She warned that technologies capable of eliminating PFAS from contaminated ecosystems effectively and at scale are not available.

The unequal distribution of this pollution makes PFAS a global environmental justice concern, with chemicals produced mainly in industrialised countries spreading across borders through emissions, international trade and the movement of waste. Their impacts extend beyond the places responsible for production, exposing communities elsewhere to lasting environmental burdens. Carney Almroth called for urgent controls on PFAS pollution, including an immediate ban on all non-essential uses, and urged consideration of the full life cycle of chemicals and materials to identify more sustainable alternatives.

Mexico Findings Reveal Gaps in Protection

Findings from Orellana's latest visit to Mexico recognised the country's international leadership on environmental issues and its constitutional recognition of the rights to health and a healthy environment. The assessment also identified serious challenges that prevent those commitments from delivering adequate protection, including heavily polluted areas described as sacrifice zones, mercury mining, agro-industrial practices, pesticide use, and industrial and water pollution.

People affected by these conditions face barriers to obtaining information and accessing effective remedies, making it harder to understand the risks around them or secure a meaningful response to harm. The report called for stronger environmental governance, updated standards grounded in science and greater protection for environmental human rights defenders. Those recommendations connect the quality of environmental rules with people's ability to seek answers, challenge unsafe conditions and defend their communities.

Prevention Needs Science and Accountability

Carney Almroth said her mandate would focus on preventing toxic pollution before damage occurs, supported by a stronger connection between scientific knowledge and human rights. She identified the protection of independent science as a priority, warning against conflicts of interest, disinformation and manufactured doubt that can weaken understanding of environmental threats. Scientific knowledge must remain available and accessible so it can support decisions that uphold people's rights.

Preventing exposure also requires accountability for the harm caused by hazardous substances, with environmental justice guiding efforts to protect communities carrying the greatest burden. Carney Almroth framed the purpose of her work around an everyday expectation: people should be able to live and raise future generations in a non-toxic environment. Her message placed that expectation at the heart of decisions about chemical production, use and disposal.