Oct. 31 EU: EEB & Partner NGOs Disagree with EU Commissions Second Regulatory Review of Nanomaterials

This Article is brought to you by SpecialChem concerning nano-materials.

The European Environmental Bureau has joined together with a broad coalition of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), consumer organizations and trade unions to express grave concerns about the conclusions of the second regulatory review of nanomaterials, recently published by the European Commission.

“With this Communication, the Commission has failed to apply the precautionary principle. On one hand the a staff working paper acknowledged the existence of possible risks due to exposure to nanomaterials, yet now the Communication is using the existing uncertainties to assume that no data means no harm and is a license to do nothing” says Tatiana Santos, senior policy officer on nanomaterials and chemicals for the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).

Finally, the Commission’s regulatory review completely ignores loopholes that undermine the capabilities of REACH, considering nanosubstances similar to normal substances.

“The clearest proof that REACH is not addressing the issue of nano substances is the lack of nano substances registered as such.

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