Global scientists warn of “silent epidemic” as chemical safety rules fail to protect public health

A coalition of 43 international scientists is sounding the alarm about what they call a “silent epidemic of chemical pollution,” arguing that current safety regulations are dangerously inadequate for protecting human health and the environment from toxic chemicals in everyday products.

The researchers, spanning five continents and including experts in toxicology, biology, and public health, published their findings in Environmental Sciences Europe, highlighting critical gaps in how governments evaluate chemical safety. Most shocking is their discovery that complete formulations of common pesticides used worldwide have never undergone long-term safety testing on mammals—only individual “active ingredients” declared by manufacturers have been assessed.

This regulatory blind spot is particularly concerning because chemical companies typically keep their full ingredient lists secret as proprietary information. The scientists found that these undisclosed components, including petroleum-based waste and heavy metals like arsenic, could make pesticides and plastic additives “at least 1,000 times more toxic at low environmentally relevant doses than the active ingredients alone under conditions of long-term exposure.”

“We are facing a silent epidemic of chemical pollution,” warned study co-author Angelika Hilbeck, a biologist at ETH Zürich. The researchers connect these regulatory failures to rising chronic diseases and collapsing biodiversity, calling for a fundamental overhaul of how chemical safety is evaluated. Their work underscores the urgent need for transparency in chemical formulations and comprehensive testing that reflects real-world exposure conditions rather than isolated active ingredients.