Environment European Commission

The European Commission has bowed to government and industry pressure, and made a series of amendments to water down its proposed European Union chemical policy. Proposals to test polymers under the policy s Reach programme have been all but scrapped, and the number of intermediates requiring testing has been drastically reduced. The concessions mean that the number of chemicals to be tested under Reach has fallen from about 30,000 to about 10,000. Some polymers may have to be registered under the revised version of Reach, but only after a review of the risks they pose, and taking into account the impact on competitiveness, innovation and protection of human health and the environment. EUROPEAN COMMISSION... 

European Commission, 2003, Renewable Fuels for Cross Border Transportation - Final Report- Study contract ENV.C1/ETU/2001/0092 -Directorate-General for Environment European Commission, 2004, Energy and transport Report 2000-2004 , ISBN 92-894-74572... 

Harrison, D.J., Radov, D.B., 2002. Evaluation of Alternative Initial Allocation Mechanisms in a European Union Greenhouse Gas Emissions Allowance Trading Schemes. NERA Report to DG Environment, European Commission, NERA. 

The environmental risk characterization is typically carried out by comparing the predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) to the predicted environmental concentration (PEC). A PEC/PNEC ratio above 1 indicates that the substance poses a potential risk to the environment (European Commission 2003a). 

Society would not look the same without man-made chemicals, being of utmost importance in medicine, industry and agriculture and for the daily welfare of citizens (European Commission 2009). At the same time, the production and use of many chemicals are causing severe health and environmental problems, including allergies, cancer and decline of biodiversity (see e.g. EEA 2007 EEA1998) in fact, 70% of new chemical substances assessed under EU law have at least one property that is dangerous to the environment (European Commission 2003). Adverse effects result from the continued use of well-known hazardous substances and from new chemicals that are introduced without much control, not least chemicals found in... 

Anon, Flame Retardants, DG Environment, European Commission, April 2000. 

DG Environment (2000) Ambient air pollution by As, Cd and Ni compounds. Position paper, working group on arsenic, cadmium and nickel compounds. DG Environment, European Commission. 

E.M. M ller-Lorenz and H.J. Grabke, Improvement of stainless steels for nse at elevated temperatures in aggressive environments, European Commission, Report EUR 20103 EN. 

The ECPI approach has been adopted by the European Commission in their "Technical Guidance Document on the Risk Assessment of Notified New Substances" as the model for assessment of environmental exposure from additives in plastics. It is important to note, however, that due to the effect of ultraviolet degradation and microbial attack, a significant proportion of the emissions from flexible PVC consists of plasticizer degradation products. In these instances, therefore, the level of plasticizers appearing in the environment will be significantly less than indicated by the plasticizer loss data. 

P.T. C. Harrison, P. Holmes and C. D.N. Humfrey, Sci. Total Environ., 1997, 205, 97. European Commission DGXll, Report EUR 17549 European Workshop on the Impact of Endocrine Disrupters on Hnman Health and Wildlife, Brussels, 1997. 

European Commission, European Workshop on the Impact of Endocrine Disruptors on Human Health and Wildlife, Weybridge, 2—4 Dec. 1996, Environment and Climate Researeh Programme, European Commission, DG XII, Brussels, Report EUR 17549. 

Statutory EQSs have been set in legislation by the European Commission (EC) and in the UK by the Department of Environment (DoE). Other non-statutory operational standards have been developed by the NRA to control discharges and assess water quality. 

The Council of the European Economic Community, established under the 1957 Treaty of Rome, in 1973 issued a declaration on the environment (4), which the European Commission in Brussels has interpreted as giving it authority to issue directives on matters related to the emission of air pollutants, such as one limiting the sulfur content of fuel oil (5). 

ARGUS (2000) The behaviour of PVC in landfill. Final report February 2000. Report prepared for the European Commission Environment Directorate (DGXI.E.3) by ARGUS (Germany) in association with Professor Spillmann (University of Rostook, Germany), Carl Bro (Denmark), and Sigma Plan (Greeoe) (http //ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/studies/pve/landfill.pdf). 

EC (2002) Assessment of the risks to heaith and the environment posed by the use of organostannic compounds (exctuding use as a biocide in antifouiing paints) and a description of the economic profiie of the industry. Final report prepared for the European Commission (Enterprise Directorate-General), July (Contract No. ETD/FIF.20010617). 

This final report, entitled Revised assessment of the risks to health and the environment associated with the use of organostannic compounds (excluding use as a biocide in antifouling paints) and released in December 2003, is an update of a report submitted to the Enterprise Directorate-General of the European Commission in July 2002 (EC, 2002). 

The report was peer-reviewed through the European Commission of Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) and by individual expert peer reviewers in EU Member States. The authors of the report were P. Floyd, C. Corden, P. Howe, and S. Dobson. 

The selection of these compounds was made on the grounds of their toxicity, environmental stability, and tendency to undergo biomagnification the intention was to move toward their removal from the natural environment. In the REACH proposals of the European Commission (EC published in 2003), a similar list of 12 POPs was drawn up, the only differences being the inclusion of hexachlorobiphenyl and chlordecone, and the exclusion of the by-products, dioxins, and furans. The objective of the EC directive is to ban the manufacture or marketing of these substances. It is interesting that no fewer than eight of these compounds, which are featured on both lists, are insecticides. 

The eChemPortal is an effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in collaboration with the European Commission, the United States, Canada, lapan, the International Council of Chemical Associations, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee, the World Health Organization s International Program on Chemical Safety, the United Nations Environment Programme on Chemicals and environmental non-governmental organizations. 

References Ihnat (1995), International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations Environment Programme (1995), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1995), Analytical Quality Control Services (1998), Quevauviller et al. (1998a), Trahey (1998), European Commission, Joint Research Centre, IRMM (1999). 

Marchandise H, Vandendriessche S (1985) The Certification of the Impurity Contents (Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Ni, Sb, Se, Sn, Te, T1 and Zn) in Three Grades of Lead, Electrolytically Refined Lead BCR No 286, Thermally Refined Lead BCR No 287, Lead with Added Impurities BCR No 288. European Commission Report EUR 9665 EN. Community Bmeau of Reference, Brussels. Merry f (1995) Reference materials for monitoring nutrients in sea water environment, approach, preparation, certification and their use in environmental laboratories. Fresenius J Anal Chem 352 148-151. 

Finally, in the risk characterization step, the PEC/PNEC quotient that defines the risk of the substance in the environment is calculated. If the quotient (PEC/PNEC) is less than 1, the substance do not present risk to the environment. More information is available in the European Commission Technical Guidance Document on Risk Assessment [3] and in the United States Environmental Protection Agency s Guidelines for Ecological Risk Assessment [6]. 

The European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances (EUSES) [8] is the software provided by European Chemical Bureau (ECB) to implement the EU Technical Guidance Documents on Risk Assessment for new notified substances, existing substances, and biocides [3]. The development of EUSES 2.1 was commissioned by the European Commission to the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) of the Netherlands. The work was supervised by an EU working group comprised of representatives of the JRC-European Chemicals Bureau, EU Member States, and the European chemical industry. 

European Commission (2012) REACH review 2012. http //ec.europa.eu/environment/ chemicals/reach/revie w 2012 en.htm... 

EC, European Commission (2012) Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - The implementation of the Soil Thematic Strategy and ongoing activities, http // ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/three en.htm... 

EC, European Commission (2000) Working document on sludge - 3rd draft. http //ec.europa. eu/environment/waste/sludge/workingdoc3.htm... 

Bouwman AF, Boumans LJM, Batjes NH (2002) Emissions of N20 and NO from fertilised fields summary of available measurement data. Glob Biogeochem Cycles 16 1058 Christensen S, Simkins S, Tiedje JM (1990) Spatial variation in denitrification dependency of activity centers on the soil environment. Soil Sci Soc Am J 54 1608-1613 CONCAWE (2006) Well-to-wheels analyses of future automotive fuels and powertrains in the European context. Study of European Council for Automotive R D, EUCAR, European Commission, Brussels... 

EC (2005) Communication from the European Commission on the Biomass Action Plan, COM(2005)628 final. European Commission, 2005 EC (2007) Sustainable use of pesticides. Online http //ec.europa.eu/environment/ppps/home.htm. Accessed at 07 Feb 2008... 

A ruling has been passed by the European Commission s scientific committee on toxicity, ecotoxicity and the environment, (the CSTEE), that the use of acetyl tributyl citrate as a plasticiser in children s toys is safe. It has also ruled that the current risk assessment models are reliable. Brief details are given in this little article. 

Proposals for the EU to press for nine hazardous substances to be banned or severely restricted under two international treaties on persistent organic pollutants were issued by the European Commission in August. The substances include polychlorinated naphthalenes and the flame retardant pentabromodiphenyl ether, concentrations of which were recently found to be rising in the Arctic environment and wildlife. 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION UK,HOUSE OF COMMONS,ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE BELGIUM DENMARK EU EUROPEAN COMMUNITY EUROPEAN UNION SCANDINAVIA WESTERN EUROPE WESTERN EUROPE-GENERAL... 

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