The public health impact of chemicals: knowns and unknowns

Overview

The 2021 data addendum estimates that 2 million lives and 53 million disability-adjusted life-years were lost in 2019 due to exposures to selected chemicals. This is higher than the estimate of the previous data addendum of 1.6 million lives and 45 million disability-adjusted life-years lost in 2016. The initial report estimated that 1.3 million lives and 43 million disability-adjusted life-years were lost due to chemical exposures in 2012.

Nearly half of deaths attributable to chemical exposures in 2019 were due to lead exposure and resulting cardiovascular diseases. The other largest contributors were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from occupational exposure to particulates and cancers from occupational exposure to carcinogens.

Data are however only available for a small number of chemical exposures and people are exposed to many more chemicals every day.