Chemicals pollution is an invisible but growing, long term threat to our health and environment. Thousands of harmful chemicals are used by all of us in products and processes every day. Some, like PFAS ‘forever chemicals’, accumulate in the environment and enter water, soil, food and air.  This pollution is a major cause of nature decline and hazardous chemicals are turning potentially recyclable resources into a toxic waste burden on local authorities.

The choice to leave the EU’s world leading chemicals regulation regime, which the UK helped to create, was recognised as one of the biggest challenges of Brexit, but the government promised the UK would set up its own system, launched in 2021.

This briefing in our Brexit stocktake series from our Legislation and Governance Unit, written by the chemicals regulation expert Chloe Alexander of Wildlife and Countryside Link, looks at how the new British system has been working and the current challenges in protecting our health and environment from harm.

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Ruth Chambers, senior fellow