Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Building 1, Room 1211, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Curr Environ Health Rep. 2020 Mar;7(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s40572-020-00261-w.
Most research on toxic exposures in vulnerable populations focuses on air pollution. Synthetic chemical production, however, is a multi-billion-dollar industry that lacks appropriate international regulation to protect those exposed to toxic chemicals. This paper aims to describe the country-level import and export of key groups of synthetic chemicals using data from the United Nations Comtrade Database and provide a narrative review of the evidence from January 2018 to August 2019 on exposure to, health effects of, and interventions to reduce synthetic chemicals in vulnerable populations around the world.
Generally, a small number of high-income countries export the majority of synthetic chemicals, while most low-income countries import more chemicals than they export, which may contribute to higher levels of synthetic chemicals in those settings. However, few studies have quantified exposures to synthetic chemicals in low- and middle-income countries, the health effects of such exposures, or interventions to mitigate exposures. Synthetic chemicals continue to enter markets despite our limited knowledge of their effects on human health, particularly in the most vulnerable populations. We need more research to understand the health impacts of these pervasive exposures.
目的综述：大多数针对弱势群体中有毒物质暴露的研究都集中在空气污染上。然而，合成化学品的生产是一个价值数十亿美元的产业，缺乏适当的国际监管来保护那些接触有毒化学品的人。本文旨在利用联合国贸易数据库的数据，描述关键类别的合成化学品在国家层面的进出口情况，并对 2018 年 1 月至 2019 年 8 月期间，全世界弱势群体接触、接触合成化学品的健康影响以及减少合成化学品干预措施的证据进行叙述性综述。
最近发现：一般来说，少数高收入国家出口大多数合成化学品，而大多数低收入国家进口的化学品多于出口，这可能导致这些地区的合成化学品水平更高。然而，很少有研究量化了中低收入国家接触合成化学品的情况、这些接触的健康影响，或减轻接触的干预措施。尽管我们对这些化学物质对人类健康的影响知之甚少，但它们仍不断进入市场，尤其是在最脆弱的人群中。我们需要更多的研究来了解这些普遍存在的暴露对健康的影响。
