EU to drop ban of hazardous chemicals after industry pressure

The German chemicals company BASF said last year that it was downsizing its European operation in part due to ‘overregulation’.

The European Commission is poised to break a promise to outlaw all but the most essential of Europe’s hazardous chemicals, leaked documents show.

The pledge to “ban the most harmful chemicals in consumer products, allowing their use only where essential” was a flagship component of the European green deal when it was launched in 2020.

It was expected that between 7,000 and 12,000 hazardous substances would be prohibited from use in all saleable products in an update to the EU’s Reach regulation, including many “forever chemicals” —  or per  — and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — which accumulate in nature and human bodies, and have been linked to various hormonal, reproductive and carcinogenic illnesses.

But the EU’s executive is on the brink of a climbdown under heavy pressure from Europe’s chemical industry and rightwing political parties.

The industry-led backlash is causing internal disquiet over the threat to public health and policymaking. One EU official said: “We are being pushed to be less strict on industry all the time.” 

A leaked legislative document proposes three options that would restrict 1%, 10% or 50% of products containing hazardous chemicals currently on the market. The EU typically selects the middle option.

Tatiana Santos, the head of chemicals policy at the European Environmental Bureau, said: “The EU’s failure to control harmful chemicals is written in the contaminated blood of almost all Europeans. Every delay brings more suffering, sickness and even early deaths. 

"The EU’s regulatory retreat could be the nail in the coffin of the European green deal, fuelling cynicism about untrustworthy elites doing deals with big toxic lobbies, unless the commission makes good on its promise to detox products and stand up to polluters.” 

The leaked 77-page impact study forms part of a revision of targets in the EU’s Reach regulation covering chemicals law, which is dated January 2023 and due to be launched by the end of this year. The text could be altered but officials say the options under consideration have not substantially changed.

The draft analysis estimates that health savings from chemical bans would outweigh costs to the industry by a factor of 10. Reduced payments for treating illnesses such as cancer and obesity would amount to €11bn-€31bn a year, while adjustment costs to businesses would be in the range of €0.9bn-€2.7bn a year.

As well as PFAS, EU regulators found that 17% of European children were at risk from combined exposure to mixtures of phthalates — linked to developmental and reproductive illnesses — in a survey of 13,000 EU citizens’ blood and urine last year. Traces of the reprotoxic endocrine disruptor bisphenol A were found in 92% of adults.

The study’s coordinator, Dr Marike Kolossa-Gehring, said that more than 34m tonnes of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances were consumed in Europe in 2020.

An EU official speaking on condition of anonymity said efforts to dilute the legal revision were helped by “a complete change in the wave of support for consumers and the environment” in Brussels, as MEPs in EU president Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s party (EPP) became queasy about environmental reform.

Guardian