EU: Helping to safeguard our Environment from toxic chemicals

[Guest guest]

European Citizens in Alternative Answers

 

Our Environment is contaminated by many dangerous chemicals. They are

in our rivers, countryside, cities and in the air. Persistent Organic

Pollutants, the most dangerous, accumulate in the environment and our

food and are believed to interfere with reproductive and immune

systems, imitate hormones and cause cancer.

 

1st of June 2008 was an important day for the New European Chemical

Testing Policy called REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation

& restriction of CHemicals). In Helsinki, Finland, the European

Chemicals Agency which manages the implementation of this legislation

started the process of pre-registration of existing substances.

Before 1981 in Europe chemicals were put on the market without being

adequately safety tested. REACH aims to classify the toxicity of

about 30,000 substances used in quantities of over 1 tonne a year but

still depends significantly on animal testing. When you consider the

technological advances that have been made in recent years and that

many animal tests have remained unchanged for over 60 years this may

not be good enough. As this will ultimately determine which chemicals

will be allowed to be used in Europe and which will not this will

make a profound difference to the number of hazardous chemicals in

our environment.

 

The European Commission has estimated that Reach will cost industry

between 2.8bn and 5.2bn euros over 11 years. This will be an

inefficient use of resources if reliance is on outdated animal

testing instead of making the most of new technological advances.

Many alternatives exist which are quicker, cheaper and more reliable

than animal tests. However, for these to be trusted and validated

takes investment and a commitment to make medical progress a

priority. REACH must make sure that all chemicals are tested with the

most accurate and trustworthy methods and new techniques must be

developed if only animal testing is available.

 

The criteria necessary to validate alternatives are strict and

comprehensive. Validated alternatives are legally trusted as suitable

replacements for animal tests. However, the European Commission's

list of approved methods does not include non-animal techniques that

were approved for scientific validity in 2007 by the European Centre

for the Validation of Alternative Methods ( ECVAM ). This is a delay

which has been criticised by the MEPs of the European parliament

because it will encourage companies to avoid using validated human

based alternatives and continue using animal tests instead. ECVAM

does important work but if they are to achieve what we all want - a

comprehensive system of scientific tests to accurately find and

eliminate all toxic chemicals from the environment - their efforts

must be supported and acknowledged.

 

Concerned citizens can contact their MEPs and ask them to support at

every opportunity the validation and approval of alternative methods

for all future testing of chemicals.

 

For more information visit

http://www.europarl.europa.eu

 

Thank You

 

Tony