The first joint Europe-wide assessment of the drivers and impact of chemical pollution by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has concluded that, despite progress in some areas, “more work is still needed to reduce the impact of harmful substances on human health and the environment”. Key findings include:

* The transition towards safer and more sustainable chemicals is progressing in some areas but just getting started in others

ECHA has contracted a consortium led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology & Experimental Medicine (ITEM) to conduct scientific studies on the reliability and relevance of new approach methodologies (NAMs) as alternatives to animal testing and to promote their use. This will run for six years, with €4.2 million in ECHA funding.

Checks on various consumer products in 26 European Economic Area (EEA) countries found that 18% of them contained excessive levels of hazardous chemicals, ECHA has revealed. This was carried out in late 2022 as an EU-wide enforcement project related to the ECHA Enforcement Forum.

The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) in Luxembourg has dismissed an action by Symrise to annul a decision by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) board of appeal in 2021. The long-running case related to a required compliance check using animal tests on Symrise’s REACH registration dossier for the UV fillers homosalate and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has amended the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Regulation, EU 64/2012, to add 27 pesticides and eight industrial chemicals into Annex I, bringing the total to 295. As a result, EU exporters are now required to notify their intentions to export them from 1 November onwards.

ECHA has published its fifth triennial report on the use of alternatives to testing on animals for REACH. Based on data from 12,439 registered substances up until 31 July 2022, it concluded that progress is being made and alternatives are widely used when assessing the safety of chemical substances.

Within the Restrictions Roadmap under the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, ECHA has released its Regulatory Strategy for Flame Retardants (FRs). This refers mainly to halogenated FRs and organophosphorus-based FRs, which make up about 70% of the organic FR market.

The strategy identified aromatic brominated FEs (BFRs) as candidates for EU-wide restriction on five classes of aromatic BFRs that are already or will be confirmed to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, or very persistent and very bioaccumulative, or identified as substances of very high concern.