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). Here, we (i) define and review the implications of COI, and its relevance for the management of chemicals, waste, and pollution; (ii) summarize established tactics to manufacture doubt in favor of vested interests, i.e., to counter scientific evidence and/or to promote misleading narratives favorable to financial interests; and (iii) illustrate these with selected examples. This analysis leads to a review of arguments for and against chemical industry representation in the SPP's work. We further (iv) rebut an assertion voiced by some that the chemical industry should be directly involved in the panel's work because it possesses data on chemicals essential for the panel's activities. Finally, (v) we present steps that should be taken to prevent the detrimental impacts of COI in the work of the SPP. In particular, we propose to include an independent auditor's role in the SPP to ensure that participation and processes follow clear COI rules. Among others, the auditor should evaluate the content of the assessments produced to ensure unbiased representation of information that underpins the SPP's activities.

For the sake of transparency, the authors list relationships with various organizations in the following (alphabetical order). Bethanie Carney Almroth is an unpaid steering committee member of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. Thomas Backhaus is an unpaid member of the EU Commission's Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER); an unpaid member of the board of the Food Packaging Forum Foundation, a Swiss foundation working on chemicals in food contact materials. Andreas Schaeffer is an unpaid board member of the RWTH Aachen University associated Research Institute for Environmental Analysis and Assessment gaiac, Germany. Anna Soehl is an independent consultant. Her contributions to this paper have been through her affiliation with the International Panel on Chemical Pollution. Ryan Sullivan is a paid scientific consultant and co-founder of Sudoc, LLC. Laura Vandenberg is a paid scientific advisor to Sudoc, LLC. Martin Wagner is an unremunerated member of the scientific advisory board of the Food Packaging Forum Foundation and of the steering committee of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. Melissa Wang is an unpaid Early Career Researcher member of the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC).The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and independent of the views or official policies of their organizations.

Peer reviewed