Scheme for vetting chemicals faces crisis

Date: 30/09/1999

By Gareth Harding

THE future of the EU's scheme for assessing the safety of chemicals is being put at risk as some member states lose patience with the slow progress being made in testing substances and vow to go it alone.

The UK is threatening to withdraw from the programme following moves by Sweden and the Netherlands to introduce national bans on certain suspect substances because tests on them have not yet been completed.

Under the system, individual member states are given responsibility for testing particular chemicals. If the country concerned decides that the substance is safe, it should then be cleared for use across the EU as a whole. However, member states have yet to deliver a verdict on a single chemical six years after the risk assessment programme was launched.

It is this slow progress which has prompted Sweden and the Netherlands to announce plans to take unilateral action. The Hague has said it intends to ban chlorinated paraffins by the end of this year, in keeping with an international chemicals treaty signed by the Union, and Stockholm has announced plans to bar the use of brominated flame retardants, which are widely used in furniture and electronic goods.

The UK, which was given responsibility for testing the flame-retardants, insists both moves run counter to the existing substances regulation. In a letter to fellow EU governments, London admits that the tests on flame retardants have taken "far too long" but adds: "As long as the regulation exists in its current form, we must work together to make it successful. If we do not, the consequences for a European chemicals programme are serious."

British officials say the Commission's response to the Swedish move will be "critical" and have warned that if London does not get a clear signal that the EU executive supports the current procedure, it may withdraw the €2.1 million it currently invests in the programme.

But a Swedish diplomat insisted that flame retardants were a threat to human health and the environment, and alternatives to the chemicals already existed. "We cannot wait until we see the effects.

We have to do something," said one.

The Dutch and Swedish moves reflect growing frustration with the EU's risk assessment programme. A risk reduction strategy for chlorinated paraffins has been drawn up, but fell victim to the six-month legislative paralysis in the Commission.

While condemning the Netherlands for taking its unilateral action, UK officials say they too are "totally frustrated by the seemingly endless delays in the Commission on chlorinated paraffins"

Earlier this year, EU governments urged the Commission to draw up a new chemicals strategy based firmly on the precautionary principle by the end of 2000. New Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has already indicated that she too believes a new approach is needed.

The future of the EU's scheme for assessing the safety of chemicals is being put at risk as some Member States lose patience with the slow progress being made in testing substances and vow to go it alone.