We submit that the safe operating space of the planetary boundary of novel entities is exceeded since annual production and releases are increasing at a pace that outstrips the global capacity for assessment and monitoring. The novel entities boundary in the planetary boundaries framework refers to entities that are novel in a geological sense and that could have large-scale impacts that threaten the integrity of Earth system processes. We review the scientific literature relevant to quantifying the boundary for novel entities and highlight plastic pollution as a particular aspect of high concern. An impact pathway from production of novel entities to impacts on Earth system processes is presented. We define and apply three criteria for assessment of the suitability of control variables for the boundary: feasibility, relevance, and comprehensiveness. We propose several complementary control variables to capture the complexity of this boundary, while acknowledging major data limitations. We conclude that humanity is currently operating outside the planetary boundary based on the weight-of-evidence for several of these control variables. The increasing rate of production and releases of larger volumes and higher numbers of novel entities with diverse risk potentials exceed societies’ ability to conduct safety related assessments and monitoring. We recommend taking urgent action to reduce the harm associated with exceeding the boundary by reducing the production and releases of novel entities, noting that even so, the persistence of many novel entities and/or their associated effects will continue to pose a threat.

Information on dissipation kinetics of pesticides in food crops and other plants is a key aspect in current risk and impact assessment practice. This is because human exposure to pesticides is predominantly caused by residues in agricultural crops grown for human and animal consumption. However, modeling dissipation of pesticides in plants is highly uncertain and therefore strongly relies on experimental data. Unfortunately, available information on pesticide dissipation in plants from experimental studies only covers a small fraction of possible combinations of substances authorized for use on food and fodder crops. Additionally, aspects and processes influencing dissipation kinetics are still not fully understood. Therefore, we systematically reviewed 811 scientific literature sources providing 4513 dissipation half-lives of 346 pesticides measured in 183 plant species. We focused on the variability across substances, plant species and harvested plant components and finally discuss different substance, plant and environmental aspects influencing pesticide dissipation. Measured half-lives in harvested plant materials range from around 1 hour for pyrethrins in leaves of tomato and pepper fruit to 918 days for pyriproxyfen in pepper fruits under cold storage conditions. Ninety-five percent of all half-lives fall within the range between 0.6 and 29 days. Our results emphasize that future experiments are required to analyze pesticide-plant species combinations that have so far not been covered and that are relevant for human exposure. In addition, prediction models would help to assess all possible pesticide-plant species combinations in the context of comparative studies. The combination of both would finally reduce uncertainty and improve assumptions in current risk and impact assessment practice.

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Increasing needs for decision support and advances in scientific knowledge within life cycle assessment (LCA) led to substantial efforts to provide global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indicators under the auspices of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. As part of these efforts, a dedicated task force focused on addressing several LCIA cross-cutting issues as aspects spanning several impact categories, including spatiotemporal aspects, reference states, normalization and weighting, and uncertainty assessment. Here, findings of the cross-cutting issues task force are presented along with an update of the existing UNEP-SETAC LCIA emission-to-damage framework. Specific recommendations are provided with respect to metrics for human health (Disability Adjusted Life Years, DALY) and ecosystem quality (Potentially Disappeared Fraction of species, PDF). Additionally, we stress the importance of transparent reporting of characterization models, reference states, and assumptions, in order to facilitate cross-comparison between chosen methods and indicators. We recommend developing spatially regionalized characterization models, whenever the nature of impacts shows spatial variability and related spatial data are available. Standard formats should be used for reporting spatially differentiated models, and choices regarding spatiotemporal scales should be clearly communicated. For normalization, we recommend using external normalization references. Over the next two years, the task force will continue its effort with a focus on providing guidance for LCA practitioners on how to use the UNEP-SETAC LCIA framework as well as for method developers on how to consistently extend and further improve this framework

Prioritizing the potential risk posed to human health by chemicals requires tools that can estimate exposure from limited information. In this study, chemical structure and physicochemical properties were used to predict the probability that a chemical might be associated with any of four exposure pathways leading from sources-consumer (near-field), dietary, far-field industrial, and far-field pesticide-to the general population. The balanced accuracies of these source-based *

HighlightsTo assign use-related information to chemicals to help prioritize which will be given more scrutiny relative to human exposure potential.Categorical chemical use and functional information are presented through the Chemical/Product Categories Database (CPCat).CPCat contains information on >43,000 unique chemicals mapped to ∼800 terms categorizing their usage or function.The CPCat database is useful for modeling and prioritizing human chemical exposures.

A new dynamic plant uptake model is presented to characterize health impacts of pesticides applied to food crops, based on a flexible set of interconnected compartments. We assess six crops covering a large fraction of the worldwide consumption. Model estimates correspond well with observed pesticide residues for 12 substance-crop combinations, showing residual errors between a factor 1.5 and 19. Human intake fractions, effect and characterization factors are provided for use in life cycle impact assessment for 726 substance-crop combinations and different application times. Intake fractions typically range from 10⁻² to 10⁻⁸ kg(intake) kg(applied)⁻¹. Human health impacts vary up to 9 orders of magnitude between crops and 10 orders of magnitude between pesticides, stressing the importance of considering interactions between specific crop-environments and pesticides. Time between application and harvest, degradation half-life in plants and residence time in soil are driving the evolution of pesticide masses.We demonstrate that toxicity potentials can be reduced up to 99% by defining adequate pesticide substitutions. Overall, leafy vegetables only contribute to 2% of the vegetal consumption, but due to later application times and higher intake fractions may nevertheless lead to impacts comparable or even higher than via the larger amount of ingested cereals.