EU must offer greater protection against chemicals
Environment ministers call for action to prevent exposure to chemicals from multiple sources.
The EU needs to take further steps to protect people from the chemical cocktails they encounter in everyday life, environment ministers agreed yesterday (22 December).
The EU has a wealth of chemicals law, covering specific areas, such as pesticides, cosmetics and toys, as well as the overarching REACH regulation on the registration and authorisation of chemicals. But none of these address the fact that people are exposed to chemicals from multiple sources, for example from food, clothing and furniture.
During their meeting in Brussels the environment ministers agreed that “further action in the field of chemicals policy research and assessment methods to address combination effects of chemicals is required”.
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Denmark had lobbied to put the issue on the EU’s agenda following Danish studies highlighting potential risks to young children. Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s environment minister, hailed the council conclusions as “a great victory”.
Speaking to European Voice, he said: “It has been a very big success. Everyone agreed that it was necessary to take new steps and that the Commission should come back with a new strategy.”
A study by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency published in October suggested that toddlers may be at risk from some endocrine disrupting chemicals found in food, clogs and creams. Endocrine disruptors interfere with hormones and can damage fertility and cause cancers.
Poulsen said “I am quite concerned about future generations here in Europe. We have seen a lot of difficulties in Denmark concerning birth rates and the exposure to chemicals.”
The European Chemicals Industry Council has said that whether chemical combinations are a risk remains an open question. But Poulsen insisted that ministers had enough evidence. “We have a lot of evidence. Some of our investigations are saying that when you have these chemicals working together they are very dangerous and we have to be aware of that,” he said.
The ministers have asked the European Commission to come up with recommendations in 2010 on how EU law can tackle exposure to endocrine disruptors from multiple sources. The Commission is also required to look at the whole gamut of EU chemicals policy by early 2012 at the latest to assess how and whether it addresses the risks from exposure to chemicals from multiple sources.
Poulsen said that he expected the results to lead to more legislation, although it was too early to be precise about the details of legal proposals.