Hazardous substances and the Baltic Sea: Why a holistic approach matters

Hazardous substances that are widely marketed and used inevitably find their way into the Baltic Sea, where they become pollutants. Even chemicals that are not toxic in their original form can break down or transform into harmful micropollutants. Examples include pharmaceutical residues, certain members of the PFAS family, and brominated flame retardants.

Evidence is mounting that the overall toxic burden on our aquatic environment is already far beyond what ecosystems can handle. A drastic reduction in pollution is urgently needed.

Recent updates to several EU directives aim to improve the management of hazardous substances. However, these regulations still do not cover the full range of emerging pollutants. For example, the newly revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive still allows PMT (persistent, mobile, toxic) substances – such as PFAS – to pass through mandatory treatment steps. These substances were not prioritized for removal, despite strong evidence of the large-scale environmental harm they cause.

The extent of pollution is influenced by several factors:

• The chemical properties of substances placed on the market
• The quantities in which they are sold
• Patterns of use and resulting emissions
• The wastewater treatment technologies applied

Currently, many projects tackling these issues are carried out in isolation. Some focus on upstream solutions, such as restricting or substituting hazardous substances at the source. Others focus on downstream solutions, such as pollutant removal technologies, monitoring, and analysis. This division often fragments knowledge, making it harder for stakeholders to access and preventing a full, system-wide understanding of the problem.

Integrating chemical risk management into broader policies – such as those for circular economy and climate action – is essential. At present, chemical risks are often treated as a “dirty end-of-pipe” problem for industry, rather than as a shared responsibility for municipalities, businesses, and the public. Communication between public authorities, across departments, is often lacking.

A more holistic approach and better coordination between networks and work processes are urgently needed. This would allow us to:

• Link upstream restrictions to downstream impacts, ensuring regulations are backed by clear environmental evidence.
• Assign the costs of pollutant removal to those placing hazardous substances on the market, based on sound knowledge of use patterns and emission sources.
• Support municipal administrations in avoiding the purchase of hazardous substances through public procurement, by building their understanding of the environmental benefits.
• Ensure that municipal waste management supports the circular economy without reintroducing legacy contaminants into the system.

Only by connecting these efforts can we protect the Baltic Sea from further degradation and move toward a truly sustainable, circular, and safe future.

Policy Area Hazard Coordinator Comment

Hazardous substances are one of the main pressures in the Baltic Sea. It is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss, and additionally, climate change contributes to cumulative pressures.

From a security perspective, clean water is key. The newly adopted EU Water Resilience strategy has underlined the importance of restoring and protecting water cycle from a resilience perspective. It is important to consider not just the drinking water, but the whole water cycle and ecosystem. Moreover, it is important to work with both prevention of pollution, which would aim at stopping pollution at the source by e.g. substitution of chemicals or goods, as well as remediation measures.

Policy Area Hazards aims to tackle the issue holistically, bringing together upstream and downstream initiatives, by knowledge-building activities to support public authorities in implementing EU legislation and sharing good practices among practitioners.

Other pressing issues are historic contamination originating from munitions and other submerged objects in the Baltic Sea, which constitutes environmental and security risks. Decision-making tools for risk assessments of wrecks and munition sites have been developed by a number of projects, which could be of great help to take action where it is most needed. It is important that these tools are preserved and utilised, including to ensure that sound data collected for monitoring is well kept over time.

Article written by:
Heidrun Fammler, Managing director, Baltic Environment Forum Deutschland
Markus Raudkivi, Project Coordinator, HELCOM Secretariat
Andreas Ahrens, Senior consultant for chemicals policy, Baltic Environmental Forum
Louise Floman, Analyst, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management; EUSBSR Policy Area Hazards Coordinator

This text was originally published in the “Securing the Future – Views from the Policy Area Coordinators” publication. The publication consists of thematically focused articles that are aligned with the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region objectives. The texts support informed discussion on topics relevant across the Baltic Sea Region.

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