Yuyun Ismawati

Nexus for Health Environment and Development · Toxics Program

This study shows that children’s toys, hair accessories, office supplies and kitchen utensils in the Chinese, Indonesian, Russian, and Philippine markets contained brominated flame retardants (BFRs). The BFRs likely originated from unregulated recycling of e-waste plastics as all four countries are all producers and importers of e-waste potentially...

Lead as a toxic heavy metal is still used in the paint production process as a pigment, dryer, or anticorrosive. It can be a major source of lead exposure to paint industry workers and induced DNA damage because imbalancing reactive oxygen species and antioxidant. The genotoxic effect of lead is still being developed in many studies of industrial w...

Highlights • From 26 different countries, on four continents (Africa, America, Asia and Europe), more than 60% of the toys and consumer products analysed in this study by chemical (GC-HRMS) and effect-based analysis (DR CALUX) for polyhalogenated dioxins, showed higher levels than the proposed limit value for toxic waste (> 1000 TEQ pg/g) (Basel...

Lead is a heavy metal that can pose various health risks to humans. One of the effects of lead exposure is the inhibition of the delta-ALAD enzyme which plays a role in the heme synthesis process. Blood lead levels and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) activity are considered biomarkers of lead exposure and lead toxicity respectively. Th...

PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) or “Forever Chemicals” are environmental and health concerns because they are highly persistent and negatively impact human health. They are widely used as water- and grease-resistant additives in many products. Humans are continuously exposed to PFAS in their diet, drinking water, personal care and consum...

The report highlighted PFAS content in microwave popcorn produced in the US and sold in Indonesia. Samples purchased from the US and Indonesia contained high levels of PFAS.

We focused on mapping pollution by POPs in villages of Karawang Regency, West Java, at sites affected by using plastic and rubber waste (including used tires) as a fuel in lime kilns.

International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) summarized its multi-years of monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) entering the food chain at locations where plastic waste is being recycled, burned, incinerated or dumped. Samples of free-range chicken eggs were analyzed for brominated and chlorinated dioxins (PBDD/Fs and PCDD/Fs),...

IPEN, an international network of more than 600 NGOs from over 120 countries focused on addressing toxic pollution has conducted the first global study about dioxin, PCBs and HCB contamination of eggs from sites suspected to be polluted by POPs in 2005 when free range chicken eggs were collected from 17 countries worldwide. IPEN's and Arnika's (Cze...

This review compiles information on PCDD/F- and PCB-contaminated eggs from 20 years of global egg monitoring around emission sources conducted by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) and Arnika as well as a compilation of data from scientific literature. IPEN monitored 127 pooled egg samples including samples from 113 chicken flo...

In this research, fifteen pooled samples of free-range chicken eggs (from 14 hot spots around the world) and two reference samples from supermarkets (see Table 1) were analyzed for PBDD/Fs. All egg samples were also analyzed for PCDD/Fs and dl PCBs by HRGC-HRMS. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that sub-standard settings of e-waste plastic dispo...

This study was conducted to assess PFAS utilization in synthetic outdoor- and sportswear products in China, Indonesia and Russia by analysing the presence of 55 targeted PFAS in waterproof and stain resistant clothes.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) contamination in developing countries can include domestic and foreign pollution sources. The study focused on sites potentially polluted by such sources on Java, Indonesia, in particular, areas affected by plastic and paper waste imports, secondary aluminium production, and waste incineration in five locations...

This report presented new findings of lead in paints sold in Indonesia's market. The study includes 120 paint samples, consisting of 101 solvent-based paints, eight water-based paints, five industrial paints, three anti-corrosive paints, and three spray paints. About 27% of the samples tested have concentrations below 90ppm, which is the global a...

Executive Summary Waste generated from the use of plastics is a challenge for the whole of human society. Plastics are everywhere around us, and we can find tiny parts of plastics in even the most pristine places. Most plastics were invented by chemical scientists, and in order to make the plastic suitable for many different uses or to make them me...

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) contamination in developing countries can include both domestic and foreign sources of pollution. This study focused on sites potentially polluted by such sources on the island of Java, Indonesia, in particular sites affected by plastic and paper waste imports, secondary aluminum production, and waste incinerati...

In laboratory experiments, Lepidium sativum L. and Mentha spicata L. were grown in compost spiked with mercury. After cultivation for 20 and 68 days, respectively, translocation factors of 0.05 ≤ TF ≤ 0.2 (Lepidium sativum) and accumulation factors of 2.2 ≤ AF ≤ 12 (Mentha spicata) were recorded. Plants were then harvested and used as feedstock for...

After China closed its doors to plastic waste imports in 2018, developed countries sharply increased exports of non-recyclable plastic waste to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. As a result, Indonesia’s plastic waste imports doubled to 320,000 tonnes in 2018 compared to 2017. Based on observations by Ecoton and Nexus3, between 25% to 5...

Perdagangan merkuri di Indonesia: Tantangan, strategi, dan kebijakan Merkuri telah digunakan secara luas di Indonesia dalam jumlah besar sejak tahun 1990-an, terutama untuk ekstraksi dalam pengolahan emas. Sektor Pertambangan Emas Skala Kecil (PESK) di Indonesia pada tahun 2013 diperkirakan melepas emisi merkuri sebesar 139 ton merkuri ke lingkunga...

Key findings of this report are: PFAS substances are poorly controlled in Indonesia Indonesia became a Party to the Stockholm Convention in 2009 and the treaty added PFOS to its global restriction list in 2009. This amendment went into legal force in Indonesia in 2010. However, PFAS are essentially unregulated and not currently included in monitor...

This report describes the situation of mercury use and pollution in Indonesia between 2016-2018. Sources of mercury pollution highlighted in this report are mainly from ASGM (Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining) sector, mercury in products, cinnabar and mercury trade.

Mercury (Hg) isotopic signatures were characterized in polished rice samples from China, USA, and Indonesia (n=45). Hg isotopes were also analyzed in paired hair samples for participants from China (n=21). For the latter, we also quantified the proportion of methylmercury intake through rice (range: 31-100%), and the weekly servings of fish meals (...

This is a preliminary report on health assessment in 3 artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) hotspots in Indonesia conducted by BaliFokus and the Medicuss Foundations in Feb-March 2015.

In 2009, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP GC) decided to develop a global legally binding instrument on mercury to reduce risks to human health and the environment (UNEP GC25/5). The UNEP GC noted that mercury is a substance of global concern due to its long-range transport, persistence, ability to bioaccumula...

SANIMAS ( Sanitasi oleh Masyarakat ) or Sanitation by Community is a nation-wide sanitation program for urban poor settlements in Indonesia and has already been implemented since 2003. Population density in urban settlement range between 600 to more than 1000 people per square km, which provides no room for proper sanitation infrastructures. The de...