This week CHEM Trust’s Head of Science, Dr Ninja Reineke, is speaking on a panel at the Helsinki Chemical Forum on the subject of regulating groups of hazardous chemicals. Below she explains why this approach is needed to better protect wildlife and humans from hazardous chemicals. Business as usual is not an option The history [...]
Human health
We are all exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from everyday sources, including food contact materials, cosmetics and toys, and these are linked to a range of health concerns. In 2017 the EU Commission announced that it would develop a new strategy to minimise exposures of EU citizens to endocrine disrupters beyond pesticides and biocides. [...]
Many people are unaware of the fact that our bodies are contaminated with synthetic chemicals that weren’t there in pre-industrial times. Some of these chemicals are now banned, but stick around as they take decades to break down, if at all. Others are still in use in furniture or even cosmetics. More than ten years [...]
This International Women’s Day, we want to highlight the work of one woman in particular who had a significant impact on the field of endocrine disrupting chemicals, Dr Theo Colborn (1927-2014). A trained pharmacist, Colborn had an interest in wildlife from an early age. After completing her Master’s degree in science in 1981, she was [...]
On Monday 11th February 2019 the EU finally launched a public consultation into the EU’s ineffective laws covering the use of chemicals in food contact materials such as packaging, pipes and kitchen utensils. As we have highlighted in the past, the current laws do not properly protect public health, as many materials – like paper, [...]
It has already taken many years of debate for the EU to agree on criteria for identifying endocrine disrupting pesticides and biocides as a first step for regulatory controls. However, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from various other sources, including from food contact materials, cosmetics and toys are leading to concerns about impacts on health [...]
For over four years CHEM Trust has been calling for the EU to review its ineffective laws regulating chemicals in chemicals in Food Contact Materials (FCM) like food packaging. On September 24th, the European Commission invited a wide range of stakeholders to a workshop in Brussels to (finally!) launch this review. As we have highlighted [...]
As CHEM Trust reported in May a collaboration of academic scientists and NGOs have been working together to identify the hazardous chemicals associated with plastic packaging. We reported that over 4000 chemicals have been identified that are potentially present in plastic packaging or used during its manufacture. At least 148 of these chemicals have been identified as [...]
The European Union is currently relying on a 19 year old strategy for much of its work on Endocrine (Hormone) Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), chemicals that can disrupt the sensitive endocrine system of people and wildlife. The European Commission is now consulting on a ‘Roadmap’ “Towards a more comprehensive EU framework on endocrine disrupters”, which is [...]
On March 27th CHEM Trust published the “Toxic Soup” report, which examined how industry is being allowed to replace the well-known hormone disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA), with very similar chemicals that may also be harmful, for example bisphenol S (BPS). The day before we had sent letters to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European [...]
