Environment: A new approach to assessing toxic chemical mixtures

The Commission undertakes to address potential risks associated with chemical mixtures are properly understood and assessed. Every day, we are exposed to mixtures of chemical substances, and these combinations may affect us in ways that the individual substances do not. EU laws set strict limits for the amounts of particular chemicals allowed in food, water, air and manufactured products, but the potentially toxic effects of these chemicals in combination are rarely examined. Under the new approach, the Commission will identify priority mixtures to be assessed, ensure that the different strands of EU legislation deliver consistent risk assessments for such priority mixtures, and fill in gaps in the scientific knowledge needed to assess the mixtures. Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "EU legislation provides a high level of protection from individual chemicals, but we need to know more about how chemicals act in combination. This is an area of large scientific complexity, but such complexity should not be an excuse for inaction. When we have good reason to believe that a chemical mixture is of potential concern for human health or the environment a more detailed assessment should be carried out and we should take appropriate action." As the number of potential chemical combinations is very large, the first challenge under the new approach will be to identify priority mixtures, so that resources can be focused on the most potentially harmful combinations. See full Press Release.