Scientists develop holistic conceptual framework to characterize and rank the environmental risks of plastic polymers; tool can support targeted investment and mitigation strategies
ECHA: 2016 SVHC roadmap report
ECHA releases annual report on progress in identifying substances of very high concern; calls on companies to improve REACH registration data to assess chemicals’ hazards and risks; will focus more on groups of structurally similar substances
Washington state passes bold chemicals legislation
Pollution Prevention for Our Future Act calls on state department to identify and take action on priority substances and products; legislation covers food and beverage packaging, could restrict use of substances
ECHA and Cefic to work on REACH implementation
European Chemicals Agency and European Chemical Industry Council cooperate on ‘effective implementation of REACH’; Cefic director calls for making REACH compliance a ‘global brand’
EFSA: Consultations on weight of evidence and biological relevance
EFSA announces public consultation on two draft guidance documents concerning use of weight of evidence approach in scientific assessments and identification of biological relevance of observed effects
Quantifying the clean-up costs of ocean plastics
Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates $150 billion investment needed to address ocean plastic pollution, says solutions are in redesigning products upstream; Pew Charitable Trust to release report detailing cost estimates, launches initiative to find effective strategies
Fitness check of non-REACH chemical policies
EU Commission publishes results of fitness check for EU’s chemicals policies (excluding REACH), confirms ‘high level of protection’ provided by current legislation, acknowledges implementation challenges
Hazard- vs. risk-based chemicals management
Hazard-based approaches are criticized and risk-based management of chemicals is pushed for in Europe; doing so would weaken the protection of public health, International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec) explains
New scientific study compares migrants, toxicity of glass and PET
French researchers find migrants from PET, glass into bottled waters and test for mutagenicity, cytotoxicity and endocrine disruption
OECD urges restricted substances list for plastics
OECD report suggests establishing global list of restricted substances for plastics manufacturing in order to ‘support quality and consistency in recycling’