A/HRC/33/41 level”.89 Child-specific disaggregated data must be available to account for differences in exposure among specific groups of children. 59. During sensitive periods of development, children cannot process or use information about the risks of toxics. Moreover, information about health risks and possible sources of exposure is neither available nor accessible to parents and guardians for tens of thousands of substances manufactured and used by industries in food and consumer products, which often end up contaminating air and water. 90 60. Even if information is available and accessible, parents are often powerless to comprehend, assess and use the information to prevent exposure. Incomplete information, including on prevention and mitigation measures, can exacerbate impacts.91 61. States have an obligation to monitor and evaluate the impact of laws, policies and mechanisms in protecting children from toxics. States have a duty to ensure that parents and children have information about children’s health and are supported in using it.92 States should engage in data gathering, collaboration with civil society, and investigations, and should ensure transparency, as well as complaint mechanisms for consumers, communities and other populations at elevated risk. 93 States have an obligation to monitor childhood exposure to toxics, as well as the incidence of cancer, diabetes and other diseases linked to childhood exposure, and other related impacts. Monitoring emissions into the environment and the presence of toxics in products and food has helped States prevent exposure and reduce the risk of adverse health impacts. IV. Business responsibility to prevent exposure by children to toxics 62. Directly and indirectly, business activities account for most childhood exposures to toxics. Many emblematic cases of human rights violations from business activities share hazardous substances and wastes as a common denominator. 63. Independently of a State’s ability and/or willingness to fulfil its own human rights obligations,94 businesses have a responsibility to respect the rights of the child. 95 The State’s duty to prevent childhood exposure to toxics is mirrored by the responsibility of businesses to prevent childhood exposure to hazardous substances and wastes. The responsibility of businesses to respect children’s rights exists independently of and does not diminish the obligations of the State. 64. Nearly every businesses sector is directly or indirectly involved in the production, use, release or disposal of hazardous substances. Each of these sectors — extractive industries, energy, chemical manufacturing, construction, food and agriculture, household 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 14 Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 15 (2013), para. 58. Swedish Chemicals Agency, “Increasing children’s protection through REACH” (2014); Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Exposure of Pregnant Consumers, p. 7. It is reported that in Flint, Michigan (United States), mothers boiled water to remove lead, but this only concentrated the presence of lead in the water before it was used in infant formula. See footnote 13 above. Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 24 (2) (e), and Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 15, para. 59. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 16. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, principle 11. Ibid. See also the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011); and Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 16.