Non-food legislation – August 2022

Hazardous substances – rules and regulations
EU: The Council and the Parliament have agreed to reduce limit values for POPs in waste. Annex VI of the CLP regulation lists notes that can be assigned to substances with harmonised classifications. These notes provide further instructions on how to classify and label certain substances or mixtures containing them. A draft act adding new notes to the list was open for feedback until 19 August 2022. ECHA’s annual report (1.46 MB) on its Integrated Regulatory Strategy shows that ECHA assessed around 1900 registered chemicals in groups in 2021. Around 300 of these substances require risk management measures. A review (4.89 MB) by EEB finds that EU authorities take a decade to stop hazardous chemicals being used. US: The FDA has issued a request for information to identify data gaps for PFAS research. Keller and Heckman reports that the OEHHA has announced that it will allow the California Proposition 65 “short-form” warning rulemaking to expire and will start a new rulemaking. Prop 65 is a right-to-know law that requires individuals to receive a clear and reasonable warning before being exposed to certain chemicals.

NL: Inadequate gauze packaging leads to incorrect hazard classification of fireworks
Because only fireworks of the lowest hazard class may be stored in the Netherlands, some fireworks of a higher hazard class are fitted with special gauze packaging. Investigation (in Dutch, 506 kB) by ILT (in Dutch) shows that this packing does not function properly.

Microplastics - research
FPF reports on a study (1.31 MB) published in Polymers, in which UCBM researchers analysed human breastmilk for the presence of microplastics. They found microplastics in 26 out of the 34 samples.
Nearly 80% of meat and dairy products from farm animals tested by scientists contain microplastics, a new study (1.43 MB) from the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam has found. The study was commissioned by the Plastic Soup Foundation.
University of Sussex researchers investigated the exposure of small mammals to plastics in England and Wales and found traces in the faeces of more than half of the species examined.

More research
FPF reports on a US EPA study (1.85 MB) published in Nature Scientific Data, on the development, release, and usage of a harmonised chemical monitoring database.
In a recent article FPF discusses two PFAS studies. In one study (2.5 MB), published in Environmental Science & Technology, Stockholm University researchers hypothesize that PFAS in the environment represent a planetary boundary that has now been exceeded. In the other study (797 kB), published in Exposure and Health, NYU researchers also conclude that PFAS use needs to be restricted, but came to the conclusion by looking at human health outcomes.
In an article (745 kB) published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology a group of experts discuss how to group PFAS.
Women who are exposed to multiple phthalates during pregnancy have an increased risk of preterm birth, according to new NIH research.
 

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