UK MPS CRITICISE GOVERNMENT INACTION ON HARMFUL CHEMICALS
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
A report calls for urgent changes to the way flame retardants and packaging additives are regulated
A committee of MPs has heard that the UK's approach to chemical regulation is one of =E2=80=98firefighting', and has called on the government to set ambitious targets for reducing toxic chemicals in the environment, including elimination of endocrine disruptors in consumer products. In a wide-ranging report, the Environmental Audit Committee details government inaction and delay, and the loss of expertise and funding in toxicology and environmental chemistry.
Michael Depledge from Exeter University in the UK lays out the scale of the task, given that there are around 80,000 chemicals in common use: =E2=80=98We try to make a regulation for each chemical that comes along-and we have about 2,000 new chemicals a year-but we can't get through them all. We have toxicity tested only a few per cent of the total amount, and we don't know how they interact in mixtures.' He adds that =E2=80=98it is the integrated impact of the chemicals that we need to get to grips with'.
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