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Discussion on polymer registration under REACH goes into 4th round

EU Competent Authorities for REACH and CLP (CARACAL) subgroup members debate on the identification of polymers requiring registration and their grouping; consider different opinions of stakeholders on group size, acceptable hazard variation within a group and options to deal with the variety of molecular weights one polymer can have; discussions to continue until end of 2021

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Tracking fluorinated chemicals in the body

Scientists apply radiolabeling to study internal distribution of perfluorocarboxylic acids in mice; find uptake of both long- and short-chain substances in various tissues; method broadly applicable to study PFAS distribution in body and environment

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Microplastics in bottled water

New study finds microplastic particles in popular bottled water brands, detects on average 10 larger-sized microplastic particles and over 300 smaller-sized, likely also plastic particles per liter; WHO to launch review of health risks

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Scientists present and apply spectral database on plastic additives

Researchers develop high-resolution spectral database and method for the identification of 56 selected organic plastic additives; indicates presence of multiple additives when applied to polypropylene and polylactic acid food packaging; highlight chemical signature not polymer but product dependent and “bioplastic” just as conventional plastics contain harmful additives