Archived press release

Government plots toxic future

16 December 1999

The Government's new chemicals strategy, due to be released on Thursday 16th December, will fail to tackle health and environmental concerns, Friends of the Earth has warned. It has described the strategy as an “abject surrender to the forces of conservatism”.

The strategy will not address concerns caused by the use of chemicals that contaminate breast milk and human tissue. And it will depend almost entirely on voluntary action from a chemical industry that is more concerned with shareholder profits than protection of public health and the environment [1]. The strategy will include a stakeholder forum to discuss chemicals issues, which FOE describes as a “talking shop” likely to be dominated by the chemicals industry.

FOE is demanding that the Government puts public health and the environment first and enforces a precautionary chemicals policy. This policy should include the key actions: FOE warns that the new Government policy is unlikely to deliver on any of them:

1) A full right to know, including what chemicals are present in products.

We are not allowed to know what chemicals are used in most products - for example we can't avoid food cans containing the hormone disrupting chemical bisphenol a - in spite of concerns that hormone disrupting chemicals may be behind the rapid rise in testicular cancer and the fall in sperm counts [2].

2) A deadline by which all chemicals on the market must have had their safety independently assessed. All uses of a chemical should be approved and should be demonstrated to be safe beyond reasonable doubt.

EU research has shown that only 14% of the most heavily used chemicals have a full set of basic safety data [3]. There is nothing to stop the chemical industry continuing to sell chemicals for which they have no idea of their safety . Problem chemicals like phthalates(several of which are hormone disrupters), used in PVC products, bisphenol a (a hormone disrupter), used in the lining of tin cans and brominated flame retardants (some of which contaminate breast milk), used in the plastics of TVs, have not yet had their safety fully assessed. But we are still exposed to them.

3) A phase out of persistent or bioaccumulative chemicals. (chemicals that stick around in the environment or accumulate in our bodies)

Hundreds of industrial chemicals contaminate breast milk, with unknown impacts on our children [4]. Health advice is that breast milk is the best for babies - the Government should be committed to cleaning it up. The lessons of the past, such as the destruction of the ozone layer by CFCs (which could have led to 20 million cases of skin cancers across the world by 2050 if CFCs weren't controlled by the Montreal Protocol [5]) show that chemicals that stick around can cause problems for decades or even centuries. FOE believes that all chemicals used in domestic and industrial products should break down rapidly in the environment.

4) A requirement to substitute less safe chemicals with safer alternatives.

Industry should have to use the safest chemicals. But there is no such obligation at the moment or likely to be in this strategy. Such a requirement would have prevented industry replacing ozone-depleting chemicals with other refrigerant chemicals which contribute towards dangerous global warming, when better chemicals were available [6].

5) A commitment to stop all releases to the environment of hazardous substances by 2020.

The Government has already committed itself to cleaning up the sea in the OSPAR Convention - but the chemicals strategy will contribute little or nothing to this objective. Nor will this strategy stop the thousands of tonnes of cancer causing chemicals that are emitted by UK industry, particularly in poor areas [7].

Dr Michael Warhurst, Chemicals Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

“This strategy is little better than an abject surrender to the forces of conservatism in the chemical industry. It will do nothing to safeguard our children's health or the future of our environment.

Voluntary agreements and a stakeholder forum talking shop are no substitutes for action to get rid of nasty chemicals. The chemical industry wants to keep contaminating breast milk with their products. They can't be trusted to take any significant actions themselves - they must be forced to clean up by strict regulation.”

The UK Government, and particularly the Department of Trade and Industry, currently operates like a lobby group for the chemical industry. The UK has tried to block EU action on phthalates in baby toys [8] and the removal of breast milk-contaminating brominated flame retardants from household appliances [9].

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Examples of problem chemicals are available directly from Friends of the Earth, and on the web:
General briefing on chemicals: www.foe.co.uk/pdf/indpoll/chemchil.pdf (PDF†)
Hormone disrupting chemicals: http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/

[1] e.g. 'Industry admits flame retardant pollution, resists phase-out' ENDS Report 298 (November 1999) p13-14; 'US firms attack NPE phase-out proposals' ENDS Report 298 (November 1999) p45.

[2] For more information on Hormone Disrupting Compounds, see http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/

[3] 'Public Availability of Data on EU High Production Volume Chemicals', European Chemical Bureau, 1999.

[4] Note that breast milk is still the healthiest option. For details on the contamination of breast milk by industrial chemicals see 'Chemical Trespass: a toxic legacy', WWF, July 1999. See: http://www.wwf-uk.org/news/chem4.pdf

[5] 'Press Backgrounder: Basic facts and data on the science and politics of ozone protection', UNEP, May 1999.At http://www.unep.ch/ozone/pdf/Press-Backgrounder.pdf (PDF†)

[6] The chemical industry promotes global warming HFCs to replace ozone depleting CFCs, even when more environmentally friendly alternative refrigerants such as hydrocarbons are available. See

http://xs2.greenpeace.org/~ozone/mtb/index.html

[7] See www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/industry_and_pollution/pollution-injustice

[8] 'DTI bucks trend in Europe by defending phthalates in toys', ENDS Report 293 (June 1999), p30. Agreement on banning phthalates across Europe in PVC toys designed to be sucked by small children was finally achieved on 1st December 1999 ('EU axe finally falls on phthalates in toys', ENDS Daily 1/12/99).

[9] The DTI published a pro-industry, biassed, report defending brominated flame retardants at the end of 1998:'DTI flame retardant study inflames DETR' ENDS Report 289 (February 1999), p14 . The DTI was alone in the EU in voting against a ban on brominated flame retardants in washing machines and fridges with ecolabels:'Less “elitist” EC eco-label under discussion' ENDS Report 297 (October 1999) p40-41. These chemicals are used in the plastics of TVs and computers, and are contaminants of our blood, breast milk and even whales in remote oceans - see FOE press release 'It's in the blood: Chemicals from Computers and Textiles Pollute Blood', 19/7/1999 - on the web at:
/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/1999/19990718090047.html

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust