IFCS/FSC/07 INF 1
The non-chemical alternatives
A French contribution
18 April 2007
The concept of non-chemical alternatives, while it is not expressively defined, refers as an
important means for reducing risks from chemicals. It is now both in the SAICM declaration and
in the Council Conclusions as follows:
SAICM
Dubai Declaration on International Chemicals Management
17. We will work towards closing the gaps and addressing the discrepancies in the capacity to
achieve sustainable chemicals management between developed countries on the one hand and
developing countries and countries with economies in transition on the other by addressing the
special needs of the latter and strengthening their capacities for the sound management of
chemicals and the development of safer alternative products and processes, including nonchemical alternatives, through partnerships, technical support and financial assistance;
(see also the Overarching Policy Strategy under Risk reduction, Knowledge and information).
European Council Conclusions
h) The Strategic Approach encourages research on and development and use of non-chemical
alternatives as an important means for reducing risks from chemicals;
The non-chemicals alternatives we talk about have the following characteristics:
they are already available and well-tried;
they are cheap because already existing and ease to technically implement and use;
they can be easily handled by their potential beneficiaries 1;
they are little or not dependent from fossil resources (oil and gas) used as raw materials
for the production of synthetic chemicals or as fuels for running heavy and sophisticated
industrial systems;
they are mainly based on the couple “local production / local consumption”2.
Among various domains to which these non-chemical alternatives are relevant, we can mention
three of them essential for people, their health and environment: agriculture, construction and
public sanitation.
Agriculture
To illustrate this example, one will recall that, during the opening ceremony of the third PrepCom
in Vienna, M. Suwit Wibulpolprasert president of the International Forum of Chemical Safety
(IFCS), reported that he visited farmer village in Thailand, 20 rice farmers who got together to
No dependency on heavy and complicated technological systems and on their advocates.
This reinforce the character of moderate energy consumption: much fewer raw materials or intermediate
or finished products travelling several thousand kilometres before their final destination.
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IFCS/FSC/07 INF 1
go back to old ways of farming. He asked them how sure they are that this will have enough yield
for food and cash: "we have been advised from government to change out life to cash crop
farming for several decades, only thing we got was poverty, social disruption, we have to buy
chemicals which increase price, and sell product at uncontrollable price: we all went into
bankruptcy, and had to send people to factories, prostitution, etc. we cannot accept this to go
on. Minister of Health has come to test chemicals, and every year they come back to us and we
say that we have too many pesticides in our crops. We've learned a lesson to go back to our old
ways of rice farming to respect the environment, and our culture: less synthetic chemicals and in
3 years we have more than 100 families not using synthetic chemicals at all, also went back to
original seeds, and production is higher already. Health has improved. We are exporting the rice,
and we expect to expand to more than 1000 families: we have achieved all this without support
from any national or IGO: we've learned no matter how much committed, they only know
industrialised and cash crop way of farming, they have not been farmers”: that was he said to
me. He hopes this story will be in our minds throughout this meeting to achieve the 2020 goal:
we need to reach the people who are really affected by chemicals.
Construction
Non-chemical materials that are locally available can be used to build living quarters, insulation,
flooring and interior decoration… are a non-chemical alternative for construction. They are
either renewable (wood, hemp, cork, wood cellulose, sawdust, wool), or non-renewable but
abundantly available (dry or baked clay, stone, lime). Employing these materials avoids the use of
synthetic chemical products and enables the construction of safe homes, notably in their
capacity the ensure comfortable room temperatures both summer and winter and an acceptable
humidity level which avoids mould and diseases relating to damp: asthma, rhinitis, pharyngitis and
eczema.
Public sanitation
1.3 billion people have no access to drinkable water (more than 20 % of the world’s population)
and 2.4 billions have no toilets or sanitation system (37 % of the world’s population). Figures
which, in spite of facilities installed, are increasing because of demographic growth and
accelerated urbanization. We believe it is necessary to tackle public hygiene problems including
those that are created by sewage and consider the possible solutions.
Dry toilets are an appropriate answer, in particular for developing countries and countries with
economies in transition, targets of the QSP. They offer notably the following advantages:
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economising water;
large reduction of the contamination of surface water and, from that, reduction of the
treatment of effluents in heavy sewage treatment plants (only grey waters, should be
treated, as black water no longer exists, and they are easy to treat by sand filters,
planter bed, lagooning), reduction of epidemics due to pathogenic micro-organisms in the
faeces and, therefore, less medical treatments;
reduction of use of detergents and disinfectants, then reduction of the use of
hazardous chemicals;
recycling of the matters in soils (composting): reduction of the use of synthetic
fertilizers, enrichment of soils.
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