A/HRC/36/41 significantly higher levels. Today, paediatricians refer to the impacts of toxic chemicals and pollution on children as a “silent pandemic”.31 29. The timing of exposure is a critical factor in whether exposure to toxic chemicals may result in adverse impacts on the right to life or health. Children are not little adults. They have far greater sensitivity than adults at both high and low levels of exposure. Children also generally have higher levels of exposure than adults to toxic chemicals in their environment. Adverse health impacts can be irreversible and can even be passed down from one generation to the next. 32 Risk assessments and subsequent mitigation measures by regulators must adequately account for the elevated risk of adverse impacts in young children exposed to hazardous substances. 30. The incidence of childhood cancer has risen during periods of rapid increase in the use of industrial chemicals; the higher incidence cannot be explained by genetics or lifestyle choices alone.33 Moreover, the incidence of testicular, breast and other cancers that may be triggered by childhood exposure to toxics has also increased in recent decades. Six hundred thousand children develop irreversible intellectual disabilities every year from lead poisoning alone. 34 Beyond lead, an untold number of neurotoxicants are believed to be eroding intelligence and contributing to developmental abnormalities and behavioural disorders. Type 2 diabetes, previously seen only in adults, is occurring increasingly frequently in children; chemicals linked to obesity are believed to be a contributing factor.35 Diabetes is predicted to be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.36 Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases among children, with rates rising by 50 per cent every decade on average.37 31. States must prevent childhood exposure to toxic substances and pollution. 38 This obligation flows naturally from children’s right to physical integrity and from the fact that such exposure makes it nearly impossible to realize every child’s right to the highest attainable standard of health, to survival and to maximum development, given their extreme sensitivity to pre- and postnatal exposure. A child’s best interests should guide the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Those interests are best served through the prevention of exposure. Children have the right to demand that the State take their best interests into account in all actions relating to toxics. The inability to ensure that a child’s views are heard prior to exposure to hazardous substances and the impossibility of realizing a truly effective remedy after exposure reinforce the duty of States to prevent exposure. Workers 32. In 2013, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that nearly 2 million workers per year — between 3 and 4 workers per minute — die prematurely from occupational diseases linked to toxic chemicals. 39 33. Laws in most countries permit workers to be exposed to levels of toxic chemicals hundreds of times higher than the exposure allowed among the general public and often do not take into account real-world exposure scenarios or gender-specific and other sensitivities. Workers are frequently unable to exercise their right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which is necessary to secure a healthy workplace. 34. Workers should have the right to remove themselves from conditions they believe are unsafe, and the right to information regarding occupational health and safety. However, 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 8 See A/HRC/33/41, para. 4 (citing Philippe Grandjean and Philip J. Landrigan). Ibid., para. 2. Ibid., para. 9 (citing the National Cancer Institute of the United States of America). Ibid., para. 9 (citing WHO). See www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/obesity-chemical-causes.pdf and http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/5/842.full. WHO, “Diabetes”, fact sheet No. 312 (2016). WHO, “Bronchial asthma”, fact sheet No. 206 (2015). A/HRC/33/41. ILO, The Prevention of Occupational Diseases (2013).