European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) publishes updated report in June 2026 outlining five “key areas of regulatory challenge” in Europe. ECHA has published these reports annually since 2023 to encourage the European chemical research community to focus on the areas of greatest regulatory need (FPF reported). “The needs for further research and knowledge are organized in five areas: (i) Provide protection against most harmful chemicals; (ii) Address chemical pollution in the environment; (iii) Shift away from animal testing; (iv) Improve availability on chemical data; and (v) Promote circularity through safe materials.”
Section (i), the need to provide protection against harmful chemicals, focuses specifically on the many knowledge gaps that must be filled to have a harmonized classification of immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity on par with existing harmonized classifications including specific target organ toxicity (STOT) or reprotoxicity. Additionally, while the European Commission adopted new hazard classes for endocrine disruptors (human and environmental), more work is needed to simplify testing.
Both immunotoxicity and neurotoxicity need well-defined adverse outcome pathways, new approach methodologies (NAMs), and means to test the approaches. Endocrine disruption is currently tested primarily through vertebrate animal testing, so the development of NAMs is necessary to achieve the European goal of reducing such studies. NAMs include in vitro (test tube experiments), in silico (computer simulations), and omics (methods studying genes, proteins, and metabolites).
Section (v), about promoting circularity through safe materials, highlights that “[t]here is a lack of knowledge on chemical emissions and exposure to humans and the environment from the waste stage of materials, products and articles, due to the fact that waste… is specifically excluded from REACH…” The section outlines short and long-term goals, including estimating releases from the whole waste cycle, particularly pretreatments (e.g., shredding), or the targeting of substances from recycling of packaging materials.
ECHA encourages researchers working on the areas outlined in the report to get in touch with Partnership for Assessment of Risk from Chemicals (PARC).
Reference
ECHA (June 2026). “Key areas of regulatory challenge.”
