EU White Paper on Chemicals Policy

Maintenance and enhancement of competitiveness of the EU chemical industry. The cost of chemical testing will be high. A base set of data will cost around 85 000 Euros whilst a full data set for high-tonnage or hazardous materials may cost over 325 000 Euros. Within this constraint, EU policy will also seek to encourage substitution of hazardous chemicals by less hazardous ones. The raising of the current threshold for base set testing will also allow more materials to be evaluated under controlled conditions. 

Increased transparency. Whilst maintaining confidentiality of commercially sensitive information the policy will seek to make more information publicly available. 

Whilst, in general terms, industiy is in agreement with the objectives of the White Paper there is disagreement over implementation. The main concerns of industry centre on the cost, timescale and increased use of animals for the testing of existing substances, many of which have been used for 30 years or more without any obvious problems. Satisfactory resolution of the issues could have a significant impact on the future direction of the European chemical industiy. 

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EU White Paper on Chemicals Policy http //europa.eu.int.comm/environ-ment/chemicals/whitepaper.htm. 

The general public policy approach to technology, discussed in the previous chapter, can be seen in the attitudes of the UK government and the EU Commission towards synthetic chemicals. The UK government s chemicals strategy (DETR, 1999) and the European Commission White Paper on chemicals (CEC,... 

EES A. 2006. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) website. http /www.efsa.europa.eu EU. 2000. Communication from the Commission on the Precautionary Principle. Brussels, 2.02.2000, COM (2000) 1. http /ec.europa.eu/dgs/health consumer/library/pub/pub07 en.pdf EU. 2001. White Paper on the Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy, http //ec.europa.eu/consumers/ cons safe/prod safe/other EU/chem policy en.htm... 

European Commission, White Paper on the Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy, European Commission, Brassies, Belgium, 2002, available at europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/whitepaper.htm. 

European Commission, The White Paper on the strategy for a future Chemicals Policy, COM (2001) 88 final, 27 February 2001 (available at http //europa.eu.int/ comm/enterprise/chemicals/chempol/whitepaper/white-paper.htm). 

European Commission (2001) White Paper on Strategies for a Future Chemicals Policy , (online). 2001-02-27, http //europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/wpr/2001/com2001 0088en01.pdf, accessed at 2002-02-28. 

White paper on a strategy for a future EU Chemicals Policy... 

The EU White Paper policy on chemical (from 2001 ahead) wants to identify hazards of all chemicals on the market greater than 1 tone (EU-COM, 2008). In this respect, (Q)SARs methods have been found most useful for identifying these hazards to limit animal testing, since the current policy... 

On 13 February 2001 the European Commission adopted the much-discussed White Paper Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy (a. 10). The current EU chemical control measures were considered to result in too great a disparity between new and existing substances, with the high cost of new substance notification stifling innovation. Furthermore, although existing substances account for >99% by volume of chemicals in commerce, they were considered to be relatively poorly assessed and controlled in comparison with new substances. 

According to the European Commission s White Vapcr on the strategy for a fiiture chemicals policy, the global production of chemicals had increased fitim Imillion tonnes in 1930, to 400 million tones by die time the White Paper was published in 2001 (EC, 2001 4). The chemical industry in the EU produces about one third of total international chemical output and as such is collectively the largest chemical industry in the world, with an estimate turnover of some 556 billion in 2003 (for the EU 25 counteies) (CEFIC 2004). 

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