Chemicals in Europe: from burden of the past to vision for the future

Publication date: March 2003

Summary
Although the European Union remains one of the largest chemical producing regions of the world, we still know virtually nothing about the hazards posed by the vast majority of chemicals currently being manufactured and marketed, such as environmental persistence, toxicity and effects on human health.

It is estimated that tens of thousands of chemicals have been intentionally produced and/or put on the European market without evaluating the hazards they may pose. Recent estimates suggest around 100,000 of these chemicals have been registered and 30,000 marketed with production volumes greater than one tonne. More chemicals enter Europe as additives or contaminants in chemical preparations or consumer products. Others are generated as unintentional by-products of chemical manufacturing or waste management processes and are released in waste streams or even distributed as contaminants in consumer products.

Only 140 chemicals have so far been prioritised for risk assessment and, of these, assessments are complete for only a handful. For the vast majority, we still know practically nothing about environmental fate and effects or hazards to human health. At the same time, many of those chemicals which are already known to be hazardous are nevertheless still in widespread use, as industrial or commercial chemicals or preparations or as constituents of consumer goods (e.g. brominated flame retardants and organotin compounds). Indeed, 70% of the so-called "new substances" tested have been identified as dangerous.