European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) study analyzes costs and benefits of REACH restrictions proposed during 2016-2020; finds public health benefits of €2.1 billion per year outweigh costs of €0.5 billion per year; restrictions protect over seven million EU citizens from cancers, sexual development disorders, asthma, skin allergies; prevents annual release of 100 000 tons of polluting chemicals
US NIEHS Director welcomes tiered approach as a first step towards inherently safe chemicals
Tiered protocol for identifying EDCs can be used by industry voluntarily to respond to consumers’ demand of inherently safer chemicals
CHE webinar on plastic food packaging
Collaborative on Health and the Environment holds webinar on Plastic food packaging within its Plastics and health series
EFSA EREN: Identifying emerging risks
Overview article describes outcomes of EFSA’s emerging risks exchange network (EREN) from 2010-2014, strategy for dealing with emerging risks in food safety
News from the EU Commission on food contact materials
EU Commission plans authorization of two new substances for use in food contact plastics, postpones discussions on new ceramics legislation and discusses Declaration of Compliance issues
EU notifies C9-C14 PFCA restriction to WTO
European Union notifies World Trade Organization of proposed amendment to REACH Restriction List (Annex XVII) to restrict manufacturing, use, placing on the market and import of C9-C14 perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs), their salts and related substances within the EU; long-chain PFCAs can be present in food contact materials as impurities but also degradation products of long-chain fluorotelomers
EFSA publishes mixtures methodology
European Food Safety Authority launches guidance on assessment of ‘combined effects’ of chemical mixtures in food and feed
The new WHO/UNEP EDC report a mandatory reading
NIEHS director Linda Birnbaum addresses new EDC report in Environmental Health Perspectives editorial
EDCs and manufacturing doubt
Prominent EDC researchers publish rebuttal to critique of WHO/UNEP State of the Science 2012 report, accuse industry-funded scientists to deliberately confuse non-experts to delay regulatory action
Focus on EDC controversy
Health & Environment article outlines debate around 2012 WHO/UNEP report on EDCs; discusses value of state-of-the-science reviews and need for systematic review methods in complex research problems