Widespread use of potentially dangerous chemicals in consumer goods 

Companies are breaking EU law by marketing hundreds of potentially dangerous chemicals that are widely used in consumer and other products, according to a three year investigation into the chemical industry by national authorities.

Exposure to many types of industrial chemicals is a leading cause of falling human fertility and rising rates of childhood cancers, among other diseases.

A third (32%) of the 1,814 high production volume chemicals made or imported into Europe since 2010 break EU laws designed to protect the public and environment from harmful exposure, according to the study (see page 23) by German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and German Environment Agency (UBA). Just 31 percent were declared as legally compliant, with the rest needing more investigation.

Companies are breaking Europe’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations by failing to report to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) whether their substances are cancer causing, neurotoxic, mutagenic, bioaccumulative and/or harmful to developing children or human fertility.

Yet millions of tonnes of these substances have flowed into the production of all manner of consumer and industrial goods, from paint to packaging, furniture to construction materials, since 2010.

The BfR/UBA study is a rare effort by a public authority tasked with enforcement. No other national authority has conducted such an inspection for years.

Industry figures from several firms, including Clariant and the German Chemical Industry Association, told officials that the results should not have been announced without prior consultation and that unwelcome policy changes may result.

The Commission is supposed to publish a strategy on how to achieve a “non-toxic environment” before the end of the year. The strategy is making no progress, EEB said.

Read the full article here.