Support the adoption of a new global initiative on “Chemicals Management Issues of Special Concern for Children’s Health” at the first conference of the UN Global Framework on Chemicals! 

Before we are old enough to choose what we want to study, where we want to live, or who we want to become, the environment around us is already shaping our health. 

Today, children under the age of 15 bear the majority of global disease burden from harmful chemical exposures. More than 90% of children breathe toxic air. More than 33% have elevated blood lead levels. Of the estimated 350,000+ chemicals and chemical mixtures produced and used commercially, only a small fraction have been tested for safety to the average adult, and even less for toxic effects in infants and children. 

This is not a new problem. For decades, experts and scientists have warned of a "silent pandemic of [childhood] disease and disability" caused by toxic chemical exposures, and repeatedly concluded that regulation and action have failed to keep pace. Despite this, few chemicals policies explicitly account for children’s vulnerabilities. Responses to child-related chemical risks emerge reactively, one chemical, one product or one use at a time, after generations have already been harmed. 

That is why, through the Chemicals and Waste Youth Platform, children and youth from more than 150 countries have come together to develop a proposal to the United Nations that would establish the first dedicated global initiative focused on Chemicals Management Issues of Special Concern for Children's Health (read the proposal HERE).

This November, governments and institutions meeting at the First International Conference of the United Nations Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC IC-1) have the opportunity to adopt this proposal to: 

• Reduce children's exposure to harmful chemicals.
• Advance science-based, child-responsive decision-making on chemical risks.
• Increase awareness, knowledge-sharing and access to information on children's chemical safety.

We, the children and youth of the world who will live with the consequences of today's decisions the longest, need your help to show policymakers that this is a global priority that cannot wait.

Will you join us?

• Sign this petition to show public support for strengthened action to protect children's health from harmful chemicals.
• Share that #KidsCount4ChemicalSafety with ready-to-use posts, graphics and resources in our Advocacy Toolkit, and help bring the campaign to more people and communities worldwide.
• Engage by joining the Chemicals Action for Children's Health Informal Stakeholder Group to help shape the proposal, build partnerships and amplify this global movement.

For more information, contact:

Ms. Shannon Lisa and Dr. Maria Talayero: secretariat@chemwasteyouth.org,  ceh@chemwasteyouth.org

Header image by: Asif Ahmed, Everyday Pollution - young photographer from Bangladesh raising awareness of the effects of pollution on the environment and our daily lives.