A new CHEM Trust report “Chemical cocktails – The neglected threat of toxic mixtures and how to fix it”, highlights the reality of our exposure to multiple chemicals, the threat it represents to our health and the wider environment and why we are not properly protected.
In the report we call for urgent action from the EU to better protect people and the wider environment from exposure to real-life chemical cocktails. In our analysis, there are workable and effective policy solutions available to address this complex problem. The EU should now adopt them to deliver the promises of the 2019 European Green Deal to work towards a “toxic-free environment”.
Mixture effects – a neglected threat
We, our children, wildlife and the wider environment are constantly exposed to a complex cocktail of known and suspected harmful chemicals through air, water, food, consumer products and other routes.
Decades of research have demonstrated that combined exposure to several chemicals can result in toxic cocktail effects or mixture effects. Crucially, adverse impacts from mixture effects can be triggered even when each chemical is present at low concentrations, below a level considered safe in single substance assessment.
Yet most chemical safety regulations ignore this fact and assess chemicals in isolation, one by one, and within regulatory silos. By doing so, current chemical safety assessment vastly underestimates the true, real-life risk on our health and the environment resulting from combined exposure to multiple chemicals from various sources (e.g. industrial chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals etc.).
Dr Olwenn V. Martin, Research Fellow in Environmental Health at Brunel University, London, who reviewed the scientific content of the report, said:
“This report is an important contribution to the debate. We know from scientific studies today that there are increased health risks from combined exposures to multiple chemicals at current concentration levels. These include serious and irreversible impacts, such as on the reproductive system and brain development. It is very concerning that current assessments are still mostly relying on a substance-by-substance approach.”
Urgency for the EU to act on mixtures
As global chemical production grows and the number of chemicals in use around the world multiplies it is more urgent than ever that there are strong chemical regulations in place to protect us and the wider environment from the impacts of exposure to cocktails of harmful chemicals. What is at stake is the health of current and future generations. Tackling chemical cocktails is also part of the challenge of addressing the biodiversity crisis.
The consideration of mixture effects is a major protection gap that must be addressed urgently in all chemical related regulations. The new EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability includes important policy commitments to address the risks from mixture exposures. After decades of inaction of dealing with chemical cocktails, there is no more time to delay.
Dr Ninja Reineke, CHEM Trust head of science said:
“Until we tackle the reality of exposure to chemical cocktails people and the environment will not be properly protected. Assessing mixtures of chemicals has to become the rule rather than the exception. We have the evidence and a pragmatic solution. The upcoming reforms of REACH and other EU chemical legislation is a perfect opportunity to address the decades of inaction on this issue.”
CHEM Trust EU policy recommendations
1. Incorporate mixture assessment into all EU chemical regulations
- A Mixture Assessment Factor (MAF) must be incorporated in all chemical assessments. Starting with the main EU industrial chemical law REACH, as part of the implementation of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.
- A legal requirement for mixture assessments should be integrated into other EU chemicals laws during upcoming revisions, including those stipulated by the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.
2. Identify and control the use of the most hazardous chemicals, to reduce the quantity of hazardous chemicals we are exposed to
- More resources must be put into biomonitoring and environmental monitoring programs in the EU, to identify which chemicals we are exposed to.
- Harmful chemicals found in humans and the wider environment should be prioritised for regulatory action.
- Regulatory processes for controlling the use of chemicals must become faster and more protective. One tool in achieving this is through grouping of chemicals for regulatory measures.
Resources
Full report: CHEM Trust, 2022. Chemical Cocktails: The neglected threat of toxic mixtures and how to fix it. 71p.
Download as a pdf
Executive summary: CHEM Trust, 2022. Chemical Cocktails: The neglected threat of toxic mixtures and how to fix it – Executive summary. 12p.
Download as a pdf
Illustrations:
Chemical pollutants in the home
What are they and where do they come from?
out of place for CHEM Trust, 2022
Chemical pollutants in the environment
What are they and where do they come from?
out of place for CHEM Trust, 2022
Something from nothing – mixture toxicity matters
How can small amounts of a mixture of chemicals have an impact?
out of place for CHEM Trust, 2022
What is a Mixture Assessment Factor or MAF?
An illustration using the ‘risk cup’
out of place for CHEM Trust, 2022
Decades of inaction on mixtures toxicity
from the 1980’s onwards….
out of place for CHEM Trust, 2022
