European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) adds nine chemicals to the Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHC); six have been listed for intentional use or measured in food contact articles; listing obligates producers and suppliers to provide safety information and to notify ECHA; candidate list now contains 233 substances
ECHA report on alternatives to animal testing
Fourth report from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) finds little change since 2017, number of alternative testing adaptations continuing to increase; read-across most commonly applied followed by data-waiving and weight of evidence approaches
PAC launches PIP 360° benchmarking tool
PAC Packaging Consortium free online tool scores product packaging based on factors including material type, weight, reuse/recyclability, renewable/recycled content; provides single score with recommendations for improvement
Toxicological data missing in REACH registration dossiers
ECHA publishes 2016 REACH evaluation progress report; compliance checks reveal lack of sufficient chemical safety data in majority of evaluated registration dossiers
Nanomaterials: Challenges for risk assessment
New book chapter by EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre and Danish scientists reviews feasibility and challenges of human health risk assessment for nanomaterials
Opinion: SVHC database not 'crazy'
NGO ChemSec positively comments on the SVHC database being developed by European Chemistry Agency, calls on industry to invest in transparency and ‘think outside of the box’
UNEP: Over 3000 chemicals of concern in plastics
Technical report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) informs about “chemical-related issues of plastic pollution and options to address them”; finds 13,000 chemicals present in plastic; 7,000 have hazard data of which 3,200 are chemicals of concern; outlines chemical groups, use sectors of concern, human and ecosystem exposure, gaps and improvement options including substitution and waste management in a circular economy
Regulatory challenges abound for hazardous chemicals in the EU
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) report outlines four key challenge areas concerning chemicals regulation in the EU; discusses protection against most harmful chemicals, particularly those inducing neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption; underscores the need for data transparency and a “lack of comprehensive information on many substances”, particularly polymers
U.S. FDA launches webpage on micro- and nanoplastics in food
Provides general information on micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs); claims there is no evidence showing health risks; comments on lack of standardized methods for detecting, quantifying, and characterizing MNPs
OECD publishes nanomaterial safety testing data
OECD reveals results of testing program on nanomaterials and concludes that standard chemical testing guidelines are mostly applicable to nanomaterials