UN toxics expert warns chemicals threaten "many, if not all, human rights". The AI boom must not be overlooked.

In her first address to the UN Human Rights Council today, the new Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Bethanie Carney Almroth, warned that poor management of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste threatens "many, if not all, human rights". She stressed the need for reliable information on toxic pollution and for the voices of affected people to be heard.¹

She also presented her predecessor's final report on "forever chemicals" and human rights, which calls for a ban on these chemicals in all non essential uses.² Foundation for Gaia welcomes her priorities, and urges her to include the chemicals and waste linked to data centres in her work.

Why data centres matter for this mandate

Data centres are the facilities that run artificial intelligence and cloud services. Their rapid growth brings new risks from toxic chemicals and electronic waste, many of which are poorly understood and poorly regulated.

• Forever chemicals in cooling: Some data centre cooling systems, such as two phase immersion cooling, rely on PFAS, the same forever chemicals examined in today's report.³ In the United States, a coalition of 17 environmental organisations is urging regulators not to approve a new PFAS cooling fluid, citing risks from its manufacture, use, maintenance and disposal.⁴
• Delayed reporting: US reporting requirements on PFAS use, which will cover data centre operators, have been postponed several times, and the deadline is now 31 January 2027.⁵ Access to information about hazardous substances is a core part of the Special Rapporteur's mandate. Without mandatory reporting, people living near data centres have no way of finding out whether these chemicals are in use next door.
• What comes out of the pipes: Cooling systems discharge water that can carry a heavier chemical load than the water drawn in. In Oregon, Amazon agreed a USD 20.5 million settlement over claims, brought partly under US hazardous waste law, that its data centres contributed to nitrate pollution of a groundwater source that nearby communities rely on for drinking water.⁶
• Electronic waste: The world produced 62 million tonnes of electronic waste in 2022, and only 22.3 per cent of it was properly recycled.⁷ AI infrastructure alone could generate up to 2.5 million tonnes of electronic waste a year by 2030.⁸

These are exactly the kinds of harms the mandate was created to examine. They fall on communities who often do not know which chemicals are being used near them, or where the waste ends up.