Letter from the US House Oversight and Reform Committee to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asks what steps FDA is taking to evaluate human health effects from, or to ban, phthalates in food packaging and processing materials
UBA: third report on compliance of REACH registrations
German Environment Agency (UBA) examines REACH registration dossiers for medium tonnage band chemicals, finds 24% are non-compliant and 31% are too complex to determine compliance, concludes that dossier improvements may be needed
European Commission hosts workshop to contribute to substitution planning
Report from workshop on “strengthening the role of substitution planning” finds consensus and sticking points on road to REACH revision; broad consensus that industry should be responsible for creating the substitution plans but disagreements on how to assess the plan and monitor implementation; study on substitution planning to be published by the end of 2024
ECHA calls for comments on chlorinated paraffins
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) seeks information on manufacture, use, exposure, environmental release of chlorinated alkanes to inform restriction proposal; comments accepted until December 15, 2020
ENVI committee adopts resolution on chemicals strategy
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
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
EDCs: Sweden vs. European Commission
Sweden’s case against the European Commission for delaying the setting of EDC criteria: Hearing at European Court of Justice in Luxembourg
Corporate plastic commitments not expected to meet 2025 targets
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) reports progress, or lack thereof, on corporate packaging commitments set for 2025; plastic pact signatories increased portfolio of recycled, recyclable, or compostable products by 2% between 2019 and 2021; reuse decreased, and virgin plastic use increased; EMF calling for stronger governmental action and support of UN plastic pollution treaty
FPF comments on integration of essential use concept
Food Packaging Forum (FPF) provides comments following a European Commission stakeholder consultation workshop on the essential use concept (ESU); finds integration of an ESU in EU’s food contact materials (FCM) regulation increases FCM safety by allowing easier and more efficient management of harmful chemicals; recommends integrating ESU into EU FCM regulations during current revision process