Pesticides can be a substantial source of trifluoroacetate (TFA) to water resources.

Through the application of C-CF-containing plant protection products (PPP) in agriculture, a substantial quantity of trifluoroacetate (TFA) can be formed and emitted. We here present estimations of TFA formation potentials from PPP across three important economical regions, namely Europe, the United States of America and China. PPP with TFA formation potential vary in type and use profile across those regions, but can be found throughout, with the estimated maximum TFA emissions ranging from 0 to 83 kg/km per year.

Should Transformation Products Change the Way We Manage Chemicals?

When chemical pollutants enter the environment, they can undergo diverse transformation processes, forming a wide range of transformation products (TPs), some of them benign and others more harmful than their precursors. To date, the majority of TPs remain largely unrecognized and unregulated, particularly as TPs are generally not part of routine chemical risk or hazard assessment. Since many TPs formed from oxidative processes are more polar than their precursors, they may be especially relevant in the context of persistent, mobile, and toxic (PMT) and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substances, which are two new hazard classes that have recently been established on a European level.

Integrated data-driven cross-disciplinary framework to prevent chemical water pollution.

Access to a clean and healthy environment is a human right and a prerequisite for maintaining a sustainable ecosystem. Experts across domains along the chemical life cycle have traditionally operated in isolation, leading to limited connectivity between upstream chemical innovation to downstream development of water-treatment technologies. This fragmented and historically reactive approach to managing emerging contaminants has resulted in significant externalized societal costs.

Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution.

Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science-policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science-policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP's success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI).