The cost of pesticide-related illnesses in sub-Saharan African between 2005 and 2020 could reach $90bn, according to a UN report released on Wednesday highlighting the increasing health and environmental hazards from chemicals. The report by the UN environment programme (Unep) warned that the production of chemicals, especially in emerging economies where there are weaker safeguards, is damaging the environment and increasing health costs. It urged governments to step up action to meet a target set by the world's nations in 2002 to produce and use chemicals by 2020 in ways that minimise adverse effects on human health and the environment. Unep said chemical output has grown to $4.12tn, compared with $171bn in 1970. But of the more than 140,000 chemicals estimated to be on the market today, Unep said only a fraction have been thoroughly evaluated to determine their effects on health and the environment. The report collected scientific, technical and socio-economic data for the first time on the global production, trade, use and disposal of chemicals, their health effects, and the economic implications. It also looked at benzene, a well-known carcinogen associated with leukemia and other diseases, whose use in Asia over the past two decades has multiplied. It found that consumption of benzene grew 800% in China from 1990-2008 compared with 13% in North America. "Pollution and disease related to the unsustainable use, production and disposal of chemicals can, in fact, hinder progress towards key development targets by affecting water supplies, food security, well-being or worker productivity," UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner said.