DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17211524
title: Deliverable 5.2 Supplementary Data - Circular Economy, Environmental, and Emissions database for the Global Chemical Inventory

description: This is a dataset related to the Deliverable 5.2 if ZeroPM. The goal of Delivearble 5.2 is to categorize as many chemicals in the GCI as possible into categories of emission to aquatic environments, namely “emissions confirmed,” “emissions likely,” and “no emission data available.” This is part of an effort to see which persistent and mobile substances and substance groups should be prioritized for future attention.  The data sources for this deliverable include the following inventories for specific chemical uses and inventories of chemical monitoring data:

·      The chemical inventories for specific uses include databases from Canada, the US, the EU, and China, each contributing to the identification of chemicals likely to result in emissions. These inventories cover pesticides (PPID, APPRIL, EU Pesticide Active Substances), cosmetics (CosIng, IECIC), and biocides (EU Biocidal Active Substances). Collectively, thousands of chemicals from these sources—ranging from 4 in IECIC to over 2,500 in CosIng—are also found in the Global Chemical Inventory. Despite some substances potentially being inactive, all are categorized as “emissions likely” due to their intended applications and regulatory contexts.

·      The inventories of chemical monitoring data include four major datasets that provide evidence of chemical presence in various environmental media.The LitChemPlast database compiles data from 372 studies on chemicals analytically detected in plastics, identifying 1,432 substances also present in the Global Chemical Inventory and categorized as “emissions likely” due to the abundance of (micro)plastic pollution in aquatic resources. Arp and Hale (2022) reviewed 55 studies on organic chemicals in aquatic environments, identifying 873 overlapping substances, which are classified as “emissions confirmed.” Two data sets external to ZeroPM are the Multimedia Monitoring Database (MMDB), which aggregates over 63 million records from multiple sources, with 1,398 chemicals matching the Global Chemical Inventory for substances monitored in the aquatic environment and therefore were considered “emissions confirmed.” Lastly, the ANST/POL list from Muir et al. (2023) includes 8,112 chemicals detected in environmental media over 50 years, categorized as “emissions likely”, as it was unclear if they were reported in the aquatic environment or another environmental media.

By compiling all datasets, a total of 10,556 substances from the Global Chemical Inventory were assigned emission categories to aquatic environments. 7,352 substances appeared in only one dataset, while 3,335 were found in multiple datasets, highlighting overlaps and reinforcing the value of integrating diverse sources. Specifically, 1,749 substances were classified as “emissions confirmed” based on direct environmental measurements, and 8,938 as “emissions likely” due to their intended uses or presence in relevant inventories. This distribution underscores the importance of using multiple datasets to ensure comprehensive and robust chemical emission assessments.