New E.U. chemical rules to benefit Australians
Australians are set to get access to a wealth of chemical safety data if new European rules are passed, says an expert on chemical regulation.
Under new laws proposed by the European Commission last week, manufacturers would be required to provide stringent evidence their products are safe for human health and the environment. According to Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, who has just completed a PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney, on conflicts over chemical regulation, such a law would produce much needed data on chemical safety which would be accessible to people in other parts of the world, including Australia.
"This will be a major reform for chemical regulation in the future, and a major step forward," Lloyd-Smith told ABC Science Online.
At present in Europe only those chemicals put on the market after 1981 have to undergo safety testing, leaving an estimated 100,000 chemicals in use for which the possible affects on health and the environment are unknown, European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said last week. The legislation is expected to ensure that many of the chemicals approved for use decades ago would be subject to more modern and stringent testing.
"The simple rule is: no data, no market," Wallstrom said.
The new rules would apply to chemicals produced or imported in quantities of more than a tonne. Substances which cause cancer, mutations or affect reproductive systems or which build up in organisms and persist in the environment would have to be phased out unless they get special permission to be used.
"We have an increasing incidence of allergies, cancers, we have negative reproductive effects of many chemicals," said Wallstrom. "We have increasing levels in the environment and in human tissues of harmful substances and they tend to show up in places where they do not belong."
Lloyd-Smith, who is also co-ordinator of the advocacy group National Toxics Network, said the provision of data would be the most important outcome of the law for Australians.
"We have 39,000 registered chemicals in Australia and 80 % of them have never been assessed because they were already in use when new safety rules came in. The new European rules would flush out data on these chemicals into the public domain."
Lloyd-Smith said there were some concerns that loopholes might prevent chemicals such endocrine disruptors and tributyl tin from being phased out, and it was still unclear on the extent to which commercially sensitive information would be made public under the plan.
The law could have a major impact on thousands of firms around the world that make chemicals or use them in products such as plastics, electronics and toys, as it will apply to those imported into the E.U. as well as those made there. The chemical industry said the plan would cost billions of dollars and threaten more than 1.7 million jobs. The E.U. executive said it would seek a balance between improving safety and enhancing competitiveness.
The new scheme, dubbed REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), is yet to be approved by the European Parliament and a majority of E.U. governments.