A/HRC/30/40 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes in accordance with Council resolution 27/23. 2. Hazardous substances and wastes are a public health issue of global concern. Pollution is the largest cause of premature death in low- and middle-income countries.1 Air pollution alone kills over 7 million people per year.2 One quarter of the global burden of disease and more than one third of the burden among children are due to environmental determinants.3 Non-communicable diseases that might be related to hazardous substances, among other causes, include cancer, heart and lung disease, mental disabilities, obesity, diabetes and more.4 Costs related to increased health care and reduced productivity, among other effects of pesticide misuse, can exceed the amount of official development assistance received by some countries, for example in sub-Saharan Africa.5 3. Mismanagement and exposure to hazardous substances and wastes can have profound impacts on all human rights. Information is crucial to preventing human rights violations resulting from exposure to hazardous substances and wastes; crucial information on hazardous substances and wastes is, however, frequently unavailable and inaccessible.6 4. The life cycle includes the extraction of oil, gas, metals, minerals and other natural resources, followed by the processing and synthesis of these raw materials into substances that are then used to produce a range of industrial chemicals, mixtures and materials, which may contain hazardous substances. Thousands of hazardous substances, mixtures and materials are then used in various industries to manufacture everyday goods and for industrial practices. For example, hazardous substances are used by the agriculture industry as pesticides, the garment industry to produce leather and textiles, the electronics industry to manufacture mobile phones, computers and televisions among others. Hazardous substances are constituents of cosmetics, building materials, household cleaners, and other consumer products. Throughout the life cycle, wastes and other by-products are generated, often hazardous themselves. 5. The Special Rapporteur has held a broad consultative process with States, international organizations, civil society organizations, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders. He received 48 responses to a questionnaire inviting various 1 2 3 4 5 6 Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, Pollution: The Silent Killer of Millions in Poor Countries, 2014, available from www.gahp.net/new/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/GAHPPollutionSummaryNov2014DRAFT.pdf. World Health Organization (WHO), “7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution”, 25 March 2014, available from www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/. WHO, Preventing disease through healthy environments (2006). Peter Sly and others, “Networking to advance progress in children’s environmental health”, The Lancet, vol. 2 (March 2014). United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), Global Chemicals Outlook (2012). UNEP-WHO, State of the science of endocrine disrupting chemicals: 2012 (2013). See also European Commission/European Environment Agency, Environment and human health, Joint EEA-JRC report, No. 5/2013 (2013). 3