A failure to regulate four groups of toxic chemicals widely used across the global food system is costing between $1.4–2.2 trillion in annual healthcare costs (2-3 % of global GDP), plus at least 0.6 trillion more in environmental damages, a new report revealed today.
Invisible Ingredients: Tackling Toxic Chemicals in the Food System, from systems change advisory Systemiq funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment – presents the most comprehensive global assessment to date of the combined health, environmental and economic impacts of phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides and PFAS within the global food system. The report reveals that without urgent, strategic phase out, these toxic chemicals will continue to place a growing burden on human health, human fertility, global ecosystems and long-term economic stability.
“This important report presents enormous amount of scientific evidence on the harms of toxic chemicals to build a clear case for action. Through case studies, it demonstrates from empirical, real-world experience that regulation works, that reduction of exposure to toxic chemicals is possible, and that exposure reduction prevents disease and saves lives. It shows that consumer chemicals, especially those to which children are intimately exposed, require the same level of regulatory oversight as pharmaceuticals. This report is a wakeup call to policy makers and business leaders,” stated Prof. Philip J. Landrigan MD, Director of the Institute for Preventive Health and Professor of Global Public Health and Director, Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College.
Industrial chemicals are regulated far less stringently than pharmaceuticals but are present at every stage of the food chain. They are intentionally used in fertilizers and pesticides, in food processing equipment, and in packaging and coatings. They also enter the food system as contamination from soil, water, and air pollution.
The analysis finds no region is spared: higher income countries tend to regulate more strictly than lower income countries, but their populations have had longer historical exposure. This begins before birth and shapes lifelong health trajectories, contributing to higher rates of cancer, neurodevelopment diseases and metabolic diseases.
Reproductive disorders are a major area of health concern. Toxic chemicals impair fertility in both men and women. Exposure during fetal development, infancy and reproductive years can have lasting effects on fertility and overall health. If current exposure persists, there could be 200–700 million fewer births globally between 2025 and 2100—at the high end, equivalent to the entire population of Southeast Asia. While this could be reduced by up to 40–60% through the universal availability of fertility treatment, the cost would range between $26–79 billion per year, in addition to the existing complexities that accompany fertility treatment.
‘This report connects the dots between widespread toxic exposures and the alarming decline in sperm counts, egg quality, and fertility in human and non-human species. Precautionary action to limit these exposures is called for, even as we work towards solutions. We have no time to waste. Implementing the policy recommendations outlined and quantified here will protect reproductive health and more broadly, planetary health today and for future generations,” Professor Shanna Swan, PhD, from the Action Science Initiative at the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, concluded.
“Toxic chemicals are inescapable, while chemical companies reap profits and resist attempts at regulation. The resulting human and environmental harms are staggering. Crashing fertility rates are just one sign of the existential and planetary scale of this challenge,” Jeremy Grantham, Director of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, also stated on Wednesday.
Alongside the health implications, the report also highlights ecological costs of more than $640 billion per year, comprised of the costs of removing PFAS and pesticides from drinking water and agricultural losses, equivalent to just under 1% of global GDP. Despite this high figure, the report warns that most ecosystem damage from toxic chemicals including soil degradation and biodiversity decline remains unpriced.
From crisis to action: solutions exist and are cost-effective
Invisible Ingredients emphasizes that toxic pollution in food systems is solvable. Existing technologies and regulatory approaches could reduce combined health and environmental harms by around 70%, the report finds — delivering up to $1.7 trillion in annual savings worldwide.
Costs of action are small compared to benefits. For example, the report estimates that 42% of PFAS use in the EU could be phased out by 2030, and 95% by 2040, at a cost of just €1 to mitigate €100 of damage from PFAS. Similarly, €3.50 could mitigate €100 of damage from pesticides in the EU.
A call for coordinated global action
The report calls for clear, binding phase-out timelines to give industry certainty, accelerate cost declines through scale, and spur innovation in safer alternatives. It sets out three priorities:
- Act on known harms now by applying group-based restrictions that phase out the most toxic chemicals; stronger enforcement; bans on producing or exporting substances that are domestically restricted to other countries; and closer international alignment through the Global Framework on Chemicals.
- Apply precaution where safety is unclear by requiring proof of safety before market entry, using systematic independent reviews, and mandating post-market monitoring.
- Shift incentives toward safer chemistry by using producer responsibilities and regulation to create new business opportunities in chemical innovation; directing public spending to innovation and procurement guarantees; training scientists and engineers to design safety in from the start.
This latest report from Systemiq follows hard on the heels of another landmark study that was published earlier in the year in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), which found that exposure to manufactured synthetic chemicals has worsened the levels of chronic disease and developmental disorders in children, over the last 50 years, including childhood cancer, male reproductive birth defects, pediatric obesity, neurodevelopmental disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and IQ reduction.
The NEJM paper was authored by the 25 scientists, clinicians, economists and legal experts, from 17 top institutions, including Boston College, Harvard University, Duke University, the University of California, the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and the United Nations Environment Programme, many of whom have now joined the Institute for Preventive Health to make sure that policy and legal changes outlined in the study are implemented to protect children’s health.
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