Finally! After two years of discussion, last November the European Parliament cast its first vote on the proposed chemicals law, REACH. The outcome of the vote was mixed: on the one hand, a majority of Parliamentarians voted to phase out the most harmful chemicals whenever safer alternatives are available. This support of the European Parliament for the ‘substitution principle’ is an important step towards a toxics free future: it will give Europe’s chemicals industry the necessary drive to innovate and create safer products. On the other hand, regrettably, the Parliamentarians gave in to pressure from the chemicals industry and agreed that industry has to provide less safety data on their chemicals. This will leave huge gaps in the safety data necessary to identify the hazardous chemicals and their potential safer alternatives – thus undermining the positive vote on replacement of these substances.
One month later, EU Ministers failed to follow the progressive lead of the European Parliament on ‘substitution’. For example, according to the decision of the Ministers, companies could continue using some chemicals, such as those known to interfere with our hormone system, even when safer alternatives exist.
It is still possible to improve key aspects of the text in both the European Parliament and the EU council, represented by national ministers. There will be a second round of debates among these two EU institutions because they have not jointly agreed on the legislative text. We expect the final REACH vote to take place in October 2006. Sign up for Chemical Reaction alerts and we will call for your help to pressure the decision makers to protect our health and environment!