Safety has a negative impact

Leaders from the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have expressed concern that the European Union regulatory plans - proposed in a chemicals white paper under consideration by the European Commission - could unnecessarily raise costs, hamper innovation and disrupt world markets, as well as violate international trade agreements.

The two organisations have urged the Commission to focus on 'promoting successful chemical management systems' consistent with 'approaches used by other regions of the world' and with the recent agreements at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The groups said they hoped to sensitise EU policymakers to the 'serious economic implications' and 'potential trade law violations' inherent in the white paper: 'Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy'.

So what did the EU paper actually say? What it disclosed was that, since 1981, some 2,700 new chemical substances have been placed on the market. And although these new substances are subject to testing to assess their risks to human health and the environment, over 100,000 existing substances (that amount to more than 99% of the total volume of all substances on the market) are not.

Hence, the Commission proposed that existing and new substances should in the future be subject to the same testing procedure. It also suggested that the current new substances system should be revised to become more effective and efficient.

The Commission also proposed to shift responsibility to enterprises for generating and assessing data and assessing the risks of the use of all the substances.

Unsurprisingly, the industry groups were concerned.

'The proposed EU system could move away from international regulatory convergence and create a complex, burdensome and largely unworkable system that would fail to improve human health and the environment,' according to a joint statement by the CEFIC and ACC.

The Commission's proposals, the groups noted, could have a serious economic impact, far beyond the chemical industry, by significantly raising prices on thousands of consumer products on both sides of the Atlantic. The consequences would be potentially devastating for the high paying jobs at chemical companies, the downstream industries that use chemicals to make their products, and consumers around the world who rely on the essential and often life saving products based on chemistry.

Executives from the electronics, health care and personal care industries said the consequences of this new proposal could be devastating for their sectors. Representatives of small to medium sized enterprises highlighted the disproportional impact of the EU proposal and asked for changes that would not adversely affect their innovative capabilities. Based on an analysis of the EC proposals, tests would be required on over 12 million laboratory animals at a pace 'that seriously outstrips the world's existing laboratory capacity.' The testing program alone would impose costs of approximately $7 billion on chemical companies, while regulatory costs to downstream customers would be even greater.

The industry did welcome the willingness expressed by EU and US administrators to work to a more workable proposal and to ensure WTO compliance, so a compromise may be in the wings.