A UN environmental report released on Tuesday noted that pollution by states and companies is contributing to more deaths globally than Covid-19, calling for "immediate and ambitious action" to ban some toxic chemicals.
The latest study said pollution from pesticides, plastics, and electronic waste is causing widespread human rights violations as well as at least 9 million premature deaths a year, and that the issue is largely being overlooked.
The report's author, UN Special Rapporteur David Boyd explained: "Current approaches to managing the risks posed by pollution and toxic substances are clearly failing, resulting in widespread violations of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment."
In addition to this, the report urged a ban on polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl, man-made substances used in household products such as non-stick cookware that have been linked to cancer and dubbed "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily.
It also recommended the clean-up of polluted sites and, in extreme cases, the possible relocations of affected communities – many of them poor, marginalized, and indigenous – from so-called “sacrifice zones”.
According to a data aggregator called Worldometer, the coronavirus pandemic has caused close to 5.9 million deaths.
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