Chemicals provide important benefits to society and play a vital role in the global economy, but they also carry risks for the environment and human health, with greater risks to vulnerable social groups. Chemicals can contaminate soil, air and water and can damage biodiversity, and human exposure to chemicals is implicated in a range of acute and chronic health effects. As industries have grown in recent decades, so too have environmental and health concerns, and now a range of multilateral environmental agreements together with initiatives, non-binding legal instruments, national legislation and policy frameworks regulate the trade in chemicals.