1st June was a defining date for the European Environment

[Guest guest]

European Citizens in Health and Healing

 

At this time the European chemical companies are submitting testing

data on thousands of chemicals used by the citizens of Europe. The

European politicians are attempting to classify the toxicity of these

chemicals in order to decide how their use should be controlled. It

is advisable to keep up to date with the facts and to make sure our

best interests are represented.

 

Our Environment is contaminated by many dangerous chemicals. They are

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

Organic Pollutants, the more dangerous chemicals over time accumulate

in the environment and our food and are believed to interfere with

reproductive and immune systems, imitate hormones and cause cancer.

It is well known from research that our homes are contaminated with

many of these hazardous substances. Some of these come from traffic

fumes and industrial pollution. Many more are introduced into the

home by consumers of everyday household products such as washing up

liquid, bleach, laundry detergent etc. Despite caution by consumers

these chemicals still leave their residue in household dust. Just as

worryingly the bulk will find their way into treatment works where

starts the unavoidable cycle of home to environment and ultimately

into our food.

 

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

safety tested. REACH aims to correct this by evaluating the risk of

about 30000 chemical substances used in quantities of over 1 tonne a

year but still relies heavily 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.

 

The European Commission 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inefficient use of resources if reliance is on outdated animal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. Validated alternatives

are considered at least the equal of animal tests but 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 - they

must be given the support and resources they need.

 

Companies in each country of Europe required to satisfy the REACH

regulations need to submit safety data on the chemicals they use.

Citizens of Europe can make a difference in their own countries by

writing or emailing their national politicians and asking them to

support the use of validated alternatives as a legal requirement for

the testing of these substances.

 

For UK Citizens, action can be taken to help improve the quality of

testing of some of these chemicals. Many of these toxic chemicals are

used in household products. Safeguarding our health and environment

includes testing these with modern methods we can trust. Early Day

Motion 1215 asks the British Government to take measures to prevent

the testing of household products and their ingredients on animals.

For these chemicals testing will only be by validated non-animal

methods based on human biology. Ideally about 200 MP signatures are

needed if this is to be influential.

 

Complete details on EDM 1215 can be found at

http://edmi.parliament.uk

 

Further information on REACH from

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/

http://www.eceae.org

 

Thank You

 

Tony