The Swedish Chemicals Policy: A Policy to Secure a Toxic-Free Environment

"The environment must be free from man-made substances and metals that represent a threat to health or biological diversity"

The outcome, within a generation, for this environmental quality objective should include the following:

• The concentrations of substances that naturally occur in the environment are close to the background concentrations.
• The levels of foreign substances in the environment are close to zero.
• Overall exposure in the work environment, the external environment and the indoor environment to particularly dangerous substances is close to zero and, as regards other chemical substances, to levels that are not harmful to human health.
• Polluted areas have been investigated and cleaned up where necessary.

To ensure a toxic-free environment, the Swedish government and parliament have sent up the following goals to be achieved within the next generation.

Closing the Gap in Knowledge about Chemicals

• By 2010, data will be available for all manufactured products or extracted chemical substances put on the market.
• By 2010 all finished products will carry health and environmental information on dangerous substances.

Phasing Out Particularly Dangerous Substances

• Newly manufactured finished products must be free from carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reproductive substances by 2007, if those products are intended for use in a way that will release their materials to the ecocycle.
• All persistent and bioaccumulative substances will be banned by 2015.
• Mercury phased out by 2003; cadmium and lead by 2010.

Risk Reduction

Tracking of negative health and environmental effects will be undertaken to ensure they are continuously being decreased up to 2010. Also, substances that cannot be safely recycled will be continuously decreased.

Remediation

All polluted areas are identified and investigated. By 2010, measures will be taken for at least 30% of any areas assigned as high risk.

For more information visit the Swedish Chemical Inspection Agency’s website.