Chemical security

Chemicals ‘fitness check’ should improve EU legislation, not water it down

EU chemicals legislation is currently a mix between hazard and risk-based approaches. The hazard approach is that taken, for example, by the Toy Safety Directive. This states that substances that are classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) must not be used in toys. Likewise, laws protecting workers insist that employers must reduce the use of carcinogens and mutagens and replace them, where technically possible, with less harmful substances.

Such a high level of protection is, however, impossible to achieve through a purely risk-based approach. Risk assessments are notoriously slow processes and a systematic lack of exposure data frequently leads to high levels of uncertainties. This means that the establishment of acceptable exposure levels are ultimately political, rather than scientific, decisions, leaving people and the environment exposed to toxic chemicals for much longer than would be possible under a hazard-based approach.