A Non-Toxic Environment

A Non-Toxic Environment is one of 16 national environmental quality objectives set by the Swedish Government. The Swedish Chemicals Agency acts as a driver of developments and submits proposals on how to achieve a Non-Toxic Environment by 2030.

The environmental quality objective, A Non-Toxic Environment, is one of 16 national environmental quality objectives that the Swedish Parliament has decided Sweden should work towards and achieving. Sweden’s environmental objectives also include an overarching generational goal that sets the direction for environmental policy and the societal transition needed, along with a number of milestone targets that serve as steps along the way. The aim is for the objectives to guide everyone in society.

Different Swedish agencies are responsible for monitoring and evaluating one or more environmental quality objectives, with the Swedish Chemicals Agency being responsible for A Non-Toxic Environment.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is the authority that coordinates the work on the environmental objectives. They have also developed the website "Sweden’s Environmental Objectives", where you can learn more about the different objectives and what your company or municipality can do to contribute, as well as which authority is responsible for each objective.

Read more about the various environmental objectives on the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s website External link..

What does the environmental quality objective A Non-Toxic Environment mean?

The environmental quality objective A Non-Toxic Environment means that when it is achieved

• the presence of substances in the environment created or extracted by humans will not pose a threat to our health or biological diversity
• the levels of man-made-made substances (so-called substances foreign to the environment) will be close to zero, and their impact on our health and ecosystems will be negligible
• the levels of naturally occurring substances in the environment will be close to what they were before humans began extracting or altering them.

Read the English translation of the latest in-depth evaluation of A Non-Toxic Environment.

Visit the environmental objectives portal External link..

What conditions are required to achieve a Non-Toxic Environment?

Six specifications outline the important conditions needed to achieve a Non-Toxic Environment and indicate the types of actions that must be taken to reach the environmental quality objective:

• That the overall exposure to chemical substances through all exposure pathways is not harmful to humans or biodiversity.
• The use of particularly hazardous substances, within the EU legislation known as "substances of very high concern", are no longer used as far as possible.
• Knowledge of the environmental and health properties of chemical substances is available and sufficient for risk assessment.
• Information about substances hazardous for the environment and health in materials, chemical products, and goods is accessible.
• The spread of unintentionally formed substances with hazardous properties is minimal, and data on the formation, sources, emissions, and spread of the most significant of these substances and their breakdown products are available.
• Contaminated areas have been remediated to such an extent that they do not pose any threat to human health or the environment.

The Swedish Chemicals Agency’s work promotes a Non-Toxic Environment

The Swedish Chemicals Agency is the authority pushing the development forwards and providing proposals on how a Non-Toxic Environment can be achieved. Our responsibilities include the following:

• Developing legislation and other policy instruments, exercising supervision, and processing applications for pesticides.
• Working towards achieving the goals and providing the government with proposals for actions to reach these goals.
• Conducting an annual review of the environmental quality objective and the interim targets for hazardous substances.
• Updating and developing the indicators used in the review. These indicators are based on measurements in society and the environment to monitor developments over time.
• Conducting an in-depth evaluation of the Non-Toxic Environment every four years.

Read more about the work of the Swedish Chemicals Agency.

How far has Sweden come in achieving the goal of a Non-Toxic Environment?

We see that the environmental toxins that have been regulated are decreasing in the environment and in humans. The conditions for effective legislation have improved through the EU's chemicals strategy and other strategies in the European Green Deal, which is the EU's growth strategy with the aim of making the EU a climate-neutral, fair and prosperous society with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy.

At the same time, the proliferation of hazardous substances is increasing with the growing consumption and production of chemicals and goods, and we therefore recognise that new materials and goods need to be non-toxic from the start and adapted for circular flows. Knowledge of chemical substances and information on the content of goods also needs to be sufficient to assess and manage environmental and health risks, regardless of the country of manufacture.

More about the EU's chemicals strategy on the European Commission's website. External link.

More about the European Green Deal on the European Commission's website. External link.

In-depth evaluation 2023

Every four years, we carry out an in-depth evaluation of a Non-toxic environment. In the latest in-depth evaluation, we assess that the conditions for achieving the environmental quality objective of a Non-toxic environment have improved in recent years. Our assessment is based on the assumption that the measures in the EU chemicals strategy, and other strategies covered by the European Green Deal, will largely have been implemented by 2030. The assessment is that the conditions will then be in place to partially achieve the environmental status sought in the environmental quality objective in the long term. Despite this, it is not expected that these measures will have sufficient impact for a clearly positive trend in the state of the environment to be seen by 2030. There is also a risk that legislation will not prevent chemical risks at the same rate as the increase in consumption and production creates new risks.

An in-depth evaluation of the objective can be found in Report 2/23: Environmental quality objective of A Non-Toxic Environment.

More about the EU Green Deal on the website of the European Commission. External link.

Indicators measure developments in the environment

Every year, the Swedish Chemicals Agency monitors the specifications for the environmental quality objective of a Non-Toxic Environment and the interim objectives, and monitors developments through a number of so-called indicators. The indicators show changes that we can measure to get an idea of whether progress is made regarding hazardous substances in the environment, in society and regarding our health. We monitor a Non-Toxic Environment through the following six indicators:

• Occurrence of environmental pollutants in breast milk and blood
• Occurrence of hazardous substances in sludge
• Number of remediation activities at contaminated sites
• Number of consumer products labelled as allergenic
• Occurrence of plant protection products in surface water
• Pesticide risk indicators

In addition, we monitor the two interim targets on reducing the use of plant protection products and biocidal products with particularly hazardous properties based on data on the quantities of active substances sold in pesticides.

Statistics on pesticides.