On March 21, 2020, the European Commission (EC) announced the publication a report summarizing the feedback received from a targeted stakeholder consultation as part of the fitness check of EU legislation with regard to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) (FPF reported). The stakeholder consultation was open until the end of January 2020 (FPF reported). Over 180 responses were received from a range of stakeholders including industry associations, individual businesses, public authorities, civil society organizations, and academic research institutions. The survey found that 93% of respondents see the current lack of harmonized identification of EDCs as an important problem, and 73% are aware of existing inconsistencies in the way chemicals in the EU are identified and controlled considering endocrine disrupting properties. 53% believe that a category for suspected EDCs should be introduced into legislation.
Most respondents do not think that humans and wildlife are protected by the current regulatory framework from exposures to both individual substances and mixtures of substances. The same was found to be the case for the protection of vulnerable groups from EDCs. Regarding current data availability and testing, 74% believe current testing is insufficient to identify EDCs and 71% believe current data requirements are insufficient. To manage this, 32% of respondents believe action should take place at an EU-wide level and not by individual member state authorities. However, another 32% believe that member state action is justifiable if then followed by EU-wide action, and 24% believe that action by member states is justifiable in some cases. Only 2% believe that EDCs should not be regulated at the EU level. Specifically related to food contact materials (FCMs), 67% of respondents believe that regulatory authorities should focus their activities on enforcing the chemical safety of FCMs in regard to EDCs.
Separate consultations on the issue were also carried out for citizens (FPF reported) and for small and medium-sized businesses, and the outcomes from these will be reported separately.
Read more
EC (March 21, 2020). “Targeted Stakeholder Consultation in the context of a Fitness Check of the EU legislation with regard to Endocrine Disruptors – Factual Summary Report.”
Clelia Oziel (March 25, 2020). “Lack of criteria seen as an obstacle to EDC identification in EU.” Chemical Watch
Reference
EC (March 21, 2020). “Factual Summary Report.”
