By Amy Yan
~4 minutes
Scientists have recently declared chemical pollution an environmental threat as severe as climate change. Specifically, chemical pollution is the contamination of air, land, or water with high levels of unnatural substances, or pollutants. As these chemical pollutants continue to quickly spread throughout the globe, the multitude of risks they pose is only growing.
The Severity of Chemical Pollution
The severity of chemical pollution is emphasized by the wide range of substances it encompasses and their persistence in the biosphere. Examples of chemical pollutants include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals, air contaminants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pesticides, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), to name a few. Most of these chemicals do not break down over time; instead, they accumulate year after year, causing lasting damage to the Earth. They are found in everything from rivers to livestock, and according to the CDC, PFAS have been detected in the bloodstreams of about 97% of Americans. This is a global problem, too; a 2025 study conducted in Bihar, India, revealed that nearly 90% of children and 80% of pregnant women tested in the state had unsafe amounts of lead in their blood. Furthermore, the poor regulation of industrial waste and aging infrastructure in many regions of Africa and Southeast Asia allows toxic metals such as lead and mercury to contaminate drinking water and agricultural soil.
Scientists have warned that chemical pollution has already crossed the limit for what is safe. The volume of synthetic chemicals currently in circulation has far exceeded the Earth’s capacity to manage them safely, and the sheer variety of synthetic compounds, over 350,000 globally, makes regulation nearly impossible without extensive global action.
Effects on Health & Ecosystems
For humans, exposure to chemical pollutants can cause cancer, sterility, developmental diseases, immune system damage, and disruption of brain and hormone function. Columbia University’s School of Public Health covered several significant ways chemical pollutants harm the body: DNA damage, genomic alterations and mutations, disrupted development in children, mitochondrial dysfunction, interference with regular bodily functions, endocrine disruption, increased susceptibility to allergies and infections, hindered neurotransmission, and impaired nervous system function.
As for the environment, PFAS have been detected in livestock, fish, and crops, affecting food safety and biodiversity. Chemical spills pollute rivers and seas, killing aquatic life and disrupting ecosystems. Soil contaminated with pollutants becomes infertile, reducing agricultural efficiency.
What’s Being Done
Though serious, attempts to rectify the situation have been slow-going. The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency has recently introduced stricter drinking water standards for PFAS, with limits in the parts-per-trillion range. Several states have launched lawsuits against chemical manufacturers in order to force them to fund cleanup efforts. Meanwhile, in Europe, policymakers are moving to ban classes of harmful chemicals instead of regulating them one by one, a necessary approach given the scope of the crisis, according to scientists. The UN has begun negotiations for a plastics and associated chemicals treaty, which would be the first major international agreement to limit harmful substances since the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals in 1987. Moreover, researchers are in the process of developing technology aiming to destroy PFAS molecules previously thought to be indestructible.
Even so, progress can be unsteady and quite slow. Many poorer nations lack the infrastructure to monitor chemical pollution as well as the political power to hold corporations accountable for any potential damage they cause.
Since these chemicals can be found everywhere, phasing them out requires a great deal of effort, starting with change on a systematic scale.
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