EU Sustainability Strategy for Chemicals Is Coming Based on the Indispensable Principle of “One Substance, One Assessment”
On June 20, the consultation on the road map for the planned sustainability strategy for chemicals ended. The EU will publish it later this year.
We would like to call your attention to two factors that are important to the EU in the context of the sustainability strategy:
- The relevance of the principle of “one substance, one assessment:” When an agency of another scientific body of the EU has assessed a substance, its assessment should be the foundation for all other bodies. This approach avoids duplicate studies and accelerates harmonization of European chemicals laws.
- The EU holds that an integrated approach to the assessment of chemicals in use that pose similar hazards and risks is necessary. This kind of group concept would hinder questionable substitutions, like replacing Bisphenol A with the similarly dangerous Bisphenol S.
The coordinated and cross-agency assessment of hazards and chemical risks is also desired by industry, says Sylvie Lemoine, director of product stewardship, in an interview with Chemical Watch. She states that such a procedure would make processes more efficient and make it easier to plan regulations for industry.
Individual EU plans were concretized at the ECHA Safer Chemicals Conference 2020 on June 2. The individual talks are available at the ECHA Web site.
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