Many governments and companies’ calls for a risk-based approach when defining Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) in the EU, a recent report from the European Commisson says.
The European Commission has presented a report from last year’s consultation for setting EDC criteria, which invoked comments from 863 organisations and around 21 000 citizens.
In total, 136 companies provided comments, a majority of them called for a risk-based assessment, rather than a hazard-based. Agriculture companies and farmers argued that a hazard-based assessment would lead to a production stop of important pesticides which could affect the yield of agriculture produce.
Chemical producing companies like BASF argued that a hazard-based assessment does not take all relevant scientific information into account.
ChemSec Business Group members Skanska and Sony Mobile called for a swift decision for EDC criteria in order for them to implement management systems in their respective supply chains and identify these substances.
A majority of the support for the hazard-based approach came from NGOs and other civil society organisations as well as citizens.
Read more at Chemical Watch
