In an article published on May 13, 2019, non-governmental organization (NGO) ChemTrust reported on calls from various NGOs to address hazardous chemicals. These have been published in the context of the upcoming EU Parliamentary elections on May 23-26, 2019, in which over 400 million people are eligible to vote across the 28 EU member states. ChemTrust writes that “environmental policy will undoubtedly play a key role in the next Parliament,” and they cite the results of a recent YouGov poll, which “found that the environment was important for around 80% of voters in each country.”

The Green 10, a coalition of European environmental groups, published a manifesto calling for focus on four priorities and ten key goals (FPF reported). Of them, “detoxifying Europe’s future” calls for the EU to “reduce people’s exposure to hazardous chemicals, while accelerating substitution with safer alternatives” and to “regulate to protect the environment and people’s health from pesticides, endocrine disruptors, and poisoning from lead, mercury or other toxic chemicals.” The manifesto also calls for a “clean circular economy” in which “the EU needs coherent policies to prevent waste and promote the use of durable and repairable toxic-free goods by design. Hazardous substances should not survive in recycled products.”

The NGO Health and Environmental Alliance (HEAL) has recently run a ten day campaign focusing on various issues including calls for the removal of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), a “toxic-free future,” and “a safe and toxic-free circular economy.” The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) published a manifesto for the elections (FPF reported) calling for modernization of EU regulations to consider cumulative chemical exposures, and the NGO Greener UK has published a manifesto calling to phase out the exposure to the most hazardous substances and accelerate substitution with safer alternatives.

Read more

ChemTrust (May 13, 2019). “EU Elections: Environment, health and consumer groups call for action on hazardous chemicals.”

Green 10 (2019). “European Parliament election manifesto.” (pdf)

HEAL (May 13, 2019). “EU elections: vote for a healthy planet for healthy people.”

BEUC (February 20, 2019). “Manifesto for the 2019 European elections.” (pdf)

Greener UK (May 2019). “Greener UK manifesto for the European parliamentary elections.” (pdf)

Martin Banks (May 13, 2019). “EU elections ‘great opportunity’ to ensure next legislature follows ‘green agenda.’The Parliament Magazine

ChemSec (May 16, 2019). “Does the European Parliament have any say in chemicals policy?

Chemical Watch (May 16, 2019). “NGOs target EU elections in ‘detox Europe’ campaign.

Natacha Cingotti (May 22, 2019). “NGO Platform: Hazardous chemicals should be a priority for the EU elections.

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