Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee of European Parliament passes resolution calling for upcoming chemicals strategy to fully apply precautionary and polluter-pays principles; resulting legislation should address and minimize endocrine disrupting and other hazardous chemicals in products including food packaging and recycled materials
EU Commission solicits comments on draft REACH update requirements
European Commission draft implementing regulations specifies when registrants should update REACH dossiers following changes; public feedback period open until January 15, 2020
UK environment committee calls for bottle deposit system
Environmental Audit Committee of UK parliament demands nation-wide plastic bottle deposit return scheme, more access to free drinking water, increased packaging producer responsibility, and 50% recycled content in plastic bottles
Steep decline in sperm counts of Western men
New study finds 50-60% decline in sperm counts between 1973 and 2011 among men from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand; authors see declining sperm counts as signal of risk to men’s overall health
Industry coalition backs FDA’s GRAS rule
Safe Food Ingredients Coalition advocates for court judgement supporting U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s food additive notification process; responses from plaintiffs due August 23, 2019
Chemical Hazard Data Commons
U.S. NGO Healthy Building Network launches free online resource Chemical Hazard Data Commons aggregating hazard determinations for over 85 000 substances, aimed to facilitate substitution of hazardous chemicals
EU environment committee supports draft BPA regulation
EU Parliament’s Environment Committee votes in favor of EU Commission’s draft regulation on bisphenol A in food contact materials
UNEP launches GCO II synthesis report
Synthesis report of the Global Chemicals Outlook released during 4th United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi; full report to be released in April 2019
WHO calls for expert consultation on future microplastics report
World Health Organization announces expert consultation meeting March 2-3, 2020 in Geneva to inform new report on human health risks from exposure to microplastics in environment; applications due January 19, 2020
EFSA: 2016 report on scientific cooperation
EFSA publishes report illustrating its 2016 activities to strengthen scientific cooperation with European and international partners