On March 3, 2022, Wood, an advising service, hosted a virtual stakeholder workshop to consult on the essential use concept (ESU) when applied to chemicals in products and industrial processes in the EU (FPF reported and here). The aim of the full day event was to receive feedback from selected stakeholders on “how the concept can be applied to REACH and other relevant chemicals legislations,” including the one on food contact materials (FCMs). The workshop was based on a study conducted by Wood together with the consultancy Ramboll and scientific experts on behalf of the European Commission to assist the Commission with developing and incorporating the ESU into chemicals regulation.
In his opening remarks, Patrick Child from Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), European Commission, supported the continued work on the ESU, explaining “it’s clear that there is a now a need to act, and that the established policies and legal frameworks that we have for managing the most harmful chemicals have not yet fully achieved what we need to see.” Roughly 500 stakeholders listened to the plenary sessions where the study’s methodology and tasks were presented, the fundamentals, definitions, and criteria of the ESU introduced, and lessons learned from other legislations that already contain essential use or similar concepts were shared (e.g. The Montreal Protocol). In addition, members of the study’s project team outlined how the ESU can be operationalized in specific regulations, with a focus on REACH, as well as how the respective regulations could benefit from the concept.
During break-out groups, a selected number of participants discussed the criteria that define if the use of a substance is “necessary for health, safety or critical for the functioning of society” and the criteria that define “if there are alternatives that are acceptable from the standpoint of environment and health.” The afternoon break-outs focused on ESU policy options for REACH and other legislation, with one group looking at FCMs. Cristina de Avila, Head of Unit DG ENV, wrapped-up by summarizing the day and sharing next steps including further stakeholder consultations such as on the revision of REACH (active until April 15, 2022; FPF reported) and targeted interviews and surveys with stakeholders from affected sectors. Wood will be accepting comments and feedback in the coming weeks.
The essential use concept aims to make the phase-out of the most harmful substances easier and more effective “by only allowing them when their use is essential.” Using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as a case study, Cousins and co-authors have previously suggested classifying chemicals into three categories: (i) “uses not essential for health, safety, or functioning of the society,” (ii) “uses performing important functions but for which equally performant and safer alternatives exist,” and (iii) “uses considered essential because they are necessary for health, safety, or other important societal purposes and alternatives are not yet available” (FPF reported).
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European Commission (3 March 2022). “Stakeholder workshop on the concept of ‘Essential uses.’”
