Reach as an example - results and leftovers
-
Upload
det-okologiske-rad -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Reach as an example - results and leftovers
The Ecological Council
REACH as an example - results and leftovers
Lone Mikkelsen, Policy Officer - Chemicals
The Ecological Council
Aarhus, 1st March, 2013
Content
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
• About the Danish Ecological Council?
• The role of an NGO
• REACH – the chemicals legislation
• What has changed?
• Limitations of REACH
• What to expect from the future
About us
The Ecological Council
• A Danish NGO founded in 1991
• An academic organisation dealing with
environmental policy on a scientific
basis
→ trying to inform and have a dialogue
with both politicians and the general
public
• Main subjects: agriculture, traffic,
economy, chemicals, energy and
climate Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
• 3-year project grant from the Velux
Foundation
• Collaboration with Roskilde
University and DTU Environment
• Three key areas
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals
- Cocktail effects
- Nanomaterials
Better regulation of chemicals
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Better regulation of chemicals
Overall goal:
- To strengthen the NGO
participation in further development
of chemicals legislation in the EU
• Denmark has for many years given
high priority to topics related to
chemical risks
• Played a large role in the EU policy
making
The Ecological Council
• Operate independently of
governmental influence
• Funded mainly by private foundations
→ needs to follow a project description
• Trying to influence legislators by
stating the organizations position on
specific legislation (lobbyism)
• There are believed to be about 15.000
lobbyists in Brussels Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
The role of NGO’s
The Ecological Council
• European Commission – role in policy
formulation and drafting legislation
• European Parliament – accessible, the
people’s representatives, key role in
legislation
• European Council – Policy and position
tracking in Brussels, lobby at the
national level
• National authorities
Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Who do we lobby?
The Ecological Council
Collaboration with:
• European NGO’s (European
Environmental Bureau) – common
letters and documents
• MEPs (Dan Jørgensen, Christel
Schaldemose)
• Danish politicians
• Danish NGO’s
Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
European influence
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Main objectives of
European Legislation
• Harmonize regulations on chemicals of the
member states ensuring the functioning of
the internal market
• Protect public health
- originally mainly workers’ health, later
general population (consumers) with
increasing focus on vulnerable groups
• Increasing protection of the environment
- no longer only water and air pollution
The Ecological Council
• REACH was adopted in 2006 and
entered into force in 2007
• REACH is the Regulation on
Registration, Evaluation and
Authorisation of Chemicals
• Replaced about 40 former directives
• Covers all industriel chemicals
• Based on the 'polluter pays' principle
Note – REACH covers ONLY industrial chemicals!
Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Paradigm shift
Background for legislation
• Main objective: to ensure a high level
of protection for human health and
environment, while ensuring the efficient
functioning of the internal market and
stimulating innovation and
competitiveness in the chemical industry
• Estimation of ~100,000 chemicals on
the European market
• Little is known about the toxicity of
about 75 % of them…
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
The chemicals market
The level of world chemicals sales
have increased threefold in 2011
compared to 10 years earlier
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Environment Commissioner said…
“We have decided on a step-by-step
approach to phase out and substitute
the most dangerous substances – the
ones that cause cancer, accumulate in
our bodies and in our environment and
affect our ability to reproduce. This
decision is crucial for future generations"
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Chemicals legislation;
REACH
• Industry must demonstrate that they
produce and use chemicals safely
• Registration requirement for substances
≥1 tons per producer per year
• ECHA is the driving force among
regulatory authorities in the
implementation of REACH
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
REACH of today
”The research looked at 400 documents drawn up by companies…
found that “most” didn´t meet the requirements…. In particular,
documents lacked adequate data on the toxic effects of chemicals
on reproduction…”
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Cornerstones of REACH
• Based on the precautionary principle
• SVHC on the Candidate list
- 138 very hazardous substances identified
so far
- It is expected that 1500 SVHC may be
suitable for inclusion
- at this pace a comprehensive list can be
expected in 2060…
• No data no market
• Consumer protection - right to know (45 days)
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
REACH timeline
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Chemicals legislation;
REACH
• Heavy lobbyism lead to a weakening
of the legal text
→ gaps and pitfalls
• Three important groups of chemicals
were even postponed to later revisions
• Endocrine disrupting chemicals
• Nanomaterials
• Cocktail effects
Endocrine disrupting chemicals
• A compound that mimics hormones or
disrupts hormone regulation
• The hormon system is essential for normal
development
• Effects are transferred to later generations
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Nanomaterials
• When materials are converted to nano-size
their physical, chemical and biological
properties often are fundamentally modified
• Penetrates deeper into the lungs, which
causes inflammation
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Cocktail effects
• Humans and environment are exposed
to a variety of chemicals every day
• Blood from umbilical cord showed 287
chemicals (+ what was not analyzed for)
... But most legislation are based on the toxicity
of single chemicals ...
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Why are we concerned?
Cancer Research UK; 2008
(http://info.cancerresearchuk.org) Møller, H. 1998
• Semen quality low among Danish men
• Increasing number of boys born with
malformed genitals
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Endocrine disrupting chemicals are suspected
to be a contributing factor to these effects
Denmark has the highest reported incidence
of testicular cancer
Potential human health
effects caused by EDCs
For women: Breast and reproductive organ tissue
cancers, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and pelvic
inflammatory diseases. Declining sex ratio (fewer
women)
For men: Poor semen quality (low sperm counts, high
number of abnormal sperm, low number of motile
sperm), testicular cancer, malformed reproductive
tissue (undescended testes, small penis size),
prostate disease and other recognised abnormalities
of male reproductive tissues.
Other potential effects: impaired behavioral/mental,
immune and thyroid function in developing children;
osteoporosis, early puberty
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Changes following REACH
• The use of chemicals in EU have
become more safe since REACH
BUT… more precaution is needed
• Low dose effects of endocrine disrupters
• Products underpinned by nanotechnology are
forecast to grow from a global volume of 200
bn € in 2009 to 2 trn € by 2015 (900 %
increase)
• Health effects from combinations of
pesticides at concentrations similar to those
found in our food The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Danish mixture research
• New study from DTU Food with cocktail
of fungicides (all EDCs)
• Professor Ulla Hass (research manager):
“the effects are far greater than
expected, and limits should be reduced
by half if you should take into account the
cocktail effects”
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Danish mixture research
• Sperm counts decreased by 62%
• Lost orientation – like women
• Cocktail effects at doses where the single
compounds alone have no health effect
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Danish greenhouse study
• Pesticide cocktail among mothers
• Follow up study
• Premature breast development, effects
on the nervous system and hypertension
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Documentation for
leftovers
• REACH review
• Late lessons from early warnings
• WHO/UNEP report
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
REACH review (Feb 2013)
• The Commission has concluded that
REACH functions well and delivers on
all objectives that at present can be
assessed. Some needs for adjustments
have been identified, but balanced
against the interest of ensuring
legislative stability and predictability, the
Commission will not propose any
changes to the enacting terms of
REACH.
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Our reaction
• The Commission acknowledge the
poor quality of the data submitted by
chemical companies under REACH,
but fails to propose any measures to
address this through more
demanding registration dossiers
• Protects European industry rather
than European citizens
• Led to media attention
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Late lessons from
early warnings
• Vol. II – published January
2013
→ illustrates how damaging and
costly the misuse or neglect of the
precautionary principle can be,
using case studies and a synthesis of
the lessons to be learned and applied
to maximising innovations whilst
minimising harms
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
New report from WHO/UNEP
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
• Calls EDCs a ’’global threat’’
Three strands of evidence fuels
concerns over EDCs
- The high incidence and the increasing
trends of many endocrine-related disorders
in humans
- Observations of endocrine-related effects in
wildlife populations
- The identification of chemicals with
endocrine disrupting properties linked to
disease outcomes in laboratories
Expectations to the future
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
• The EU is developing an agreed way of
identifying chemicals with endocrine
disrupting properties for regulatory action
• Threshold for EDCs? (June 2013)
• Deadline of registration for all substances
>100 tons/year (May 2013)
• ”Nano patch” + clear definition
• Better control with industry dossier
• More focus on substitution
Call-for-Action
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
The Ecological Council calls upon the
EU to:
• Ensure the use of the precautionary principle
• Base criteria on hazard and not potency
• Implement elimination of exposure as a goal
• Adopt a comprehensive def. of nanomaterials
• Ensure thorough evaluation of nano-dossiers
• Implement authorisation of nanomaterials
• Implement demands for mixture toxicity
assessment
National regulation
• Possible by use of the precautionary
principle
Denmark as an example:
- green taxes on PVC and phthalates
- introduced a national ban on bisphenol A
- all phthalates banned in toys (0-3 year)
- introduced a national ban on the
phthalates DEHP, DBP, DIBP and BBP
- nano products register
=> Risk going to court with the EU The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Denmark as front runner
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Summing up
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Safer use of chemicals since REACH!
Much has changed for the better, but
there is still much to be done!!
Very important to include EDCs,
nanomaterials and mixture effects
because of great health concerns
Find us on…
our webpage:
http://www.ecocouncil.dk/en/front-page
Facebook (join our site: “Det Økologiske Råd”)
Twitter: ecocouncil_dk
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 1st March 2013
Thank you for your
attention