On January 18, 2021, news provider Chemical Watch reported on a draft decree published by the French government that will require sellers on the French market to declare suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in their products.
In a second national strategy on EDCs, published in 2019, France announced the plan to reduce exposure to EDCs between 2019 and 2022 (FPF reported). An important aspect of this strategy is to better inform consumers about EDCs, however, so far, their declaration on consumer products has remained not mandatory.
Consequently, the French ministries of Health, Justice, and the Environment released the new draft decree, which aims to “provide citizens with transparent information on the presence of substances with endocrine-disrupting properties in products, in terms of substances, mixtures, articles, and food.”
According to the draft, sellers will need to provide details of their products and contained substances on a public digital platform. The information may include, e.g., product category, the trade name of the product, the chemical formula of the substance, and chemical abstract service (CAS) and European Community (EC) numbers of the substance.
The draft decree states that France’s competent authority for REACH, the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (ANSES), will then determine which ingredients are to be classified as containing confirmed or potential EDCs. In the following, the country’s health and environment ministries will release a list of substances with endocrine disrupting properties, divided into two categories – proven and presumed – according to the level of scientific evidence. It will also create a list of suspected EDCs. Based on this information, products are to be labeled accordingly whenever they contain a listed substance.
The draft decree is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2022, and sellers will have 18 months to provide the requested information after the publication of the order.
Read More
Kathryn Carlson (January 18, 2021). “France to require sellers to declare EDCs in consumer products” Chemical Watch
EC (December 21, 2021). “Decree on the provision of information to identify endocrine disruptors in a product.”
Le service public de la diffusion du droit (Feburary 2020). “Code de la santé publique : Chapitre II : Produits et objets divers. (Articles L5232-1 à L5232-5).” (in French)
