ECHA and Cefic to work on REACH implementation

European Chemicals Agency and European Chemical Industry Council cooperate on ‘effective implementation of REACH’; Cefic director calls for making REACH compliance a ‘global brand’

Recommendations for non-toxic environment

Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) calls on EU Commission to release strategy for non-toxic environment, recommends 12 priority actions

11th amendment to EU plastic FCM regulation

EU Commission publishes 11th amendment to plastic FCM regulation, authorizes 2 new food contact substances, changes specific migration limits for 2 existing Union List substances

REACH: Thousands of substances likely ‘missing’

EU trade body UEAPME concerned about discrepancies between predicted and actual registrations by latest REACH deadline; thousands of EU-marketed substances with volumes between 1 and 100 tons potentially unregistered still

Endocrine Society criticizes EU’s EDC strategy

Endocrine Society deems EU’s EDC criteria insufficient to protect public health, EDC guidance too restrictive, calls for extending EDC strategy to cover more product groups, including FCMs, and to protect most vulnerable populations, such as fetuses, children, adolescents

EDC guidance document published

EFSA and ECHA release pre-publication version of guidance for implementation of criteria to identify endocrine disruptors; guidance applies to biocides from June 7, 2018 and to pesticides from November 10, 2018

UN: ‘Beat plastic pollution’

New report by UN Environment reviews global state of plastic pollution and counteracting measures, provides policy recommendations to reduce single-use plastics and improve waste management

EDC strategy addressed at European Parliament

Members of EU Parliament, EU Commission and national government representatives, scientists, NGOs convene to discuss endocrine disruptors, call on EU Commission to update EDC strategy

REACH: Over 21,000 substances registered

After final REACH deadline, 21,551 chemicals on European market are registered; dossiers need to be kept ‘up to date’ to reflect new science and products, ECHA says

Live: ECHA workshop on microplastics

ECHA holds stakeholder workshop on potential restriction of intentionally used microplastics on May 30-31, 2018; live webstream of plenary session on May 30 available