EU seeks to clear up chemical fears

PAUL GEITNER / AP 13feb01

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Seeking to promote a ``nontoxic environment'' amid scares over poisoned pacifiers and tainted milk, the European Union's head office made proposals Tuesday that would force the chemical industry to prove its products are safe.

The report has already provoked criticism from environmentalists, who call it inadequate, as well as from business groups, who say the cost of new testing could put small firms out of business.

But the EU Commission maintains it can reduce risks without endangering jobs in Europe's $360 billion chemicals industry.

``We think we have reached a good, balanced answer,'' Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said after the full Commission approved the report.

The proposals will be assessed, and likely modified, by the 15 EU governments and the European Parliament over the coming months before a final directive is enacted.

Wallstrom said the EU wants to have the ``high-volume and most hazardous'' chemicals evaluated by 2005, with all the rest registered by 2012.

Little is known about the impact on human health of about 30,000 widely used chemicals because they were classified as ``existing substances'' when the current European regulations were adopted in 1981, according to the report.

The problem is not limited to Europe. Despite information-gathering initiatives recently started in the United States and Canada, ``not one country has yet been successful in overcoming the huge gap in knowledge of substances,'' the report said.

Continued exposure to ever-more substances has raised concerns about toxic side-effects ranging from cancer to early puberty.

The Commission recently moved to ban a plastic softening agent used in pacifiers and other toys for babies, which some scientists linked to liver, kidney and testicular damage, as well as a flame retardant that was showing up in human breast milk.

The Commission's plan calls for the creation of a database for the more than 100,000 chemicals registered for use in the EU.

Those produced in large volume -- at least 100 tons -- would require further evaluation. Substances of ``special concern,'' such as those suspected of causing cancer, mutations or reproductive problems, would also be tested.

A key change would move the ``burden of proof'' from regulators to industry. ``It will be on industry to prove their products are safe,'' Wallstrom said.

The proposals have been attacked by environmentalists and consumer groups, who say they do not go far enough in strengthening health and environmental standards.

The Commission itself estimates 80 percent of all substances would require registration only.

Costs for performing entry-level tests on all chemicals marketed in the EU is estimated by the Commission to be $2.9 billion over the next 20 years.

The chemical industry, however, says it will cost up to 10 times that, with as much as a 20-fold increase in chemical prices. That, they argue, would put the European chemical industry -- which employs 1.7 million people -- at a disadvantage with overseas competitors.

Wallstrom conceded that ``we are ahead of some of our competitors,'' but noted the same information-gathering work has been started in the United States, Canada, Japan and at the United Nations and other agencies.

``We are all going in the same direction because we've seen that some of these chemicals cause irreversible damage to the environment and human health,'' she said.