According to information received by CHEM Trust in response to the letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission reaffirms its commitment to revising the EU chemical law REACH.
Dr Michael Warhurst, Executive Director of CHEM Trust, said:
“CHEM Trust welcomes the fact that the Commission has confirmed that the revision of REACH is a very important initiative, and that the Commission is continuing to work on it. The current law was an important step forward when it came into force over 15 years ago, but it has proved not to offer sufficient protection to our health and the environment, as we have seen from worrying contamination of people and ecosystems. We need to see a proposal for a modernised, protective, REACH very early in the term of the next Commission.”
CHEM Trust key priorities for modernising REACH are outlined in the blog published in October 2021, one year after the Commission published its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.
Moreover, on December 5, the European Council and the European Parliament agreed on revising the CLP regulation. Overall, the revision strengthens classification and labelling in many aspects that NGOs asked for, contributing to better protection of people and the environment in the end, including:
- Promoting the use of group approaches by authorities for harmonized classification & labelling (instead of dealing with chemicals one-by-one)
- Prioritizing endocrine disruptors, PBT/vPvB, AND the PMT/vPvM substances (the latter pollute drinking water )
- Prevent delays in the classification of harmful chemicals by introducing a deadline in the legal text for the Commission to act upon ECHA’s scientific opinions (following EEB’s need for speed report).
- Introduction of gender equality.
The compromise on MOCS – substances containing more than one constituent – contains good and bad aspects:
Positive – MOCS: The rules for classification of MOCS are included in the CLP legal text. This means that clear rules for the classification of MOCS are now included in CLP, clarifying that MOCS should be classified if they contain harmful chemicals like carcinogens, EDCs, etc.
Negative – MOCS: The derogation for classification of MOCS that are extracted from plants that are not chemically modified (essential oils, like lavender oil, rose oil, basilicum oil etc.). It means that these kinds of fragrances, flavours, etc, are exempted from classification even if they contain carcinogenic or otherwise toxic constituents, e.g., harmful to fertility, due to intense industry lobbying at high levels.
