In the period 2019–2024, the Nordic working group for Chemicals, Environment and Health (NKE) has worked actively to meet the objectives of the Programme for Nordic Co-operation on the Environment and Climate. In short, our contribution could be summarised as a strive towards safe management of chemicals.
Working in the field of safe management of chemicals you often experience how difficult the general public find the topic. It is not easy to assess nor to explain the risk of long-term effects, such as development of cancer or the environmental impact of very persistent chemicals. Often the struggle starts already with a chemical name almost impossible to pronounce, e.g. phthalates. The area is indeed complex with many academic disciplines coming together and even more fields of expertise. It starts with the inherent properties of a chemical substance; can it e.g. do damage to the nervous system, cause lifelong allergy or is it, as far as we can tell today, not harmful? Depending on the effects and on how the chemical is being used, we need effective ways to protect ourselves and the environment. We need to know the risks. To know the risks, we need methods to test the properties, and we need knowledge on different exposure routes.
Despite the complexity, you will see in this report that we have achieved a lot during this six-year period. It has been possible thanks to our great network of expertise. The work has been carried out on the basis of the good work of the 12 subgroups – organized under NKE – working in diverse, specialized areas within the field of chemicals. It is fair to say that the results of the programme depend to a large extent on these highly specialized and dedicated sub-groups and the work undertaken by their members. It is the wish of the NKE that readers of this report get an insight into these results, the areas in which NKE and its subgroups operate. It is a window into their work on implementing the goals of the co-operation programme in the field of chemicals.
Furthermore, we hope that the report will serve as an example of what can be achieved across the Nordic countries with relatively few resources and a diverse mix of talented, enterprising, and dedicated people.
We hope that you will enjoy reading about our work as much as we, in the NKE working group, have enjoyed coordinating the work of our experts in the subgroups and the external projects and receiving the many excellent results.