EU round up: Cefic attacks new EU endocrine disruptor chemicals criteria

摘要

The European chemical industry association Cefic has criticised the European Commission's criteria for defining endocrine disrupting (hormone affecting) chemicals, saying resulting guidance could over-regulate harmless chemicals. "For the industry to ensure that people and the environment are properly protected, it is essential that the criteria enable the identification of harmful substances. On the other hand, harmless substances, necessary to maintain a high quality of products and services", stated a Cefic note. It said that the guidance needed to be refined to "make the criteria operational". It explained: "To clearly distinguish between those substances, which threaten to harm human health and/or the environment and those which do not, we maintain that all elements of hazard characterisation -potency, severity, lead toxicity and (ir)reversibility - should also be built into the criteria".