United Kingdom Commission

This series of texts is a result of an initiative by the Committee of Heads of Polytechnic Chemistry Departments in the United Kingdom, A project team based at Thames Polytechnic using funds available from the Manpower Services Commission Open Tech Project has organised and managed the development of the material suitable for use by Distance Learners . The contents of the various units have been identified, planned and written almost exclusively by groups of polytechnic staff, who are both expert in the subject area and are currently teaching in analytical chemistry. 

Parul Choudhary is supported by a fellowship from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. Research in the VW laboratory is supported by the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council, the Association for International Cancer Research, St Andrews, and the European Epigenome Network of Excellence. We thank Leila Barki-Celli and Ludmila Bozhenok for comments that improved this manuscript. 

This "new" approach has been in use for many years in most European countries. Originally, each country had their own national requirements. Then, based on the work done by the lEC (International Electrochemical Commission), standards were harmonized through the work of CENEEEC (Comity Europ en de Normalisation Electrotechnique). Harmonized standards, published as European Standards (EN), have to be adopted by the participating countries as national standards. Some of the countries which have already adopted these are Belgium, Erance, Germany, and the United Kingdom. 

Because of the rising future demands and delays in licensing, the Minister of Health announced on 11 March 1987 that he had commissioned a study of the control of medicines in the United Kingdom. The terms of reference were ... 

In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, decision makers commission their own independent analyses to avoid relying too heavily on company submissions. However, even here problems can exist because of... 

United Kingdom United States European Commission Other International Efforts... 

Production capacities for toluene in western Europe in 1994 were reported as (thousand tonnes) Austria, 4 Belgium, 73 France, 65 Germany, 1185 Italy, 495 the Netherlands, 255 Portugal, 140 Spain, 280 and United Kingdom, 555 (Fabri etal., 1996). Production in the United States in 1993 was reported to be 2277 thousand tonnes (United States International Trade Commission, 1994). Information available in 1995 indicated that toluene was produced in 35 countries (Chemical Information Sen-ices, 1995). 

The main intense sweeteners currently permitted for use in the major markets of Europe and the United States are not natural and have had to go through a food additive approval procedure. Within the European Union, approval is controlled by the EU Commission, with the aim of achieving harmonisation across member states. The current system allows for temporary national approval (and this was the mechanism by which sucralose was approved in the United Kingdom). This in turn allows the other EU countries time to review the data and either approve or reject each product within a specified period. Within the European Union, approved sweeteners are assigned an E number and can also be assigned a maximum use level within a specific application (e.g. soft drinks). The maximum use levels for sweeteners in soft drinks in the European Union are given in Table 4.2. 

The caloric value of alitame is 1.4 cal/g. JECFA have assigned an ADI of 0.1 rng/kg bw. The Committee on Toxicology (COT) ADI is 0.3 rng/kg bw. Alitame is currently permitted for food use in China and Australia. Submissions for approval have been made to the FDA. In Europe, a submission will be made to the EU Commission and also temporary approval will be sought in the United Kingdom via the Food Standards Agency (Koivistoinen, 2003). 

NEWGENERIS (Newborns and genotoxic exposure risks) Using 300,000 mother-child birth cohorts and stored specimens from biobanks, study will develop and apply biomarkers of dietary exposure to genotoxic and immunotoxic chemicals and biomarkers of early effects (European Commission 2006). Researchers will analyze blood samples from biobanks in Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Greece (European Union 2006). 

In 1996 the United Kingdom, which was selected to conduct the scientific review of atrazine for the European Union (EU), concluded It is expected that the use of atrazine, consistent with good plant protection practice, will not have any harmful effects on human or animal health or any unacceptable effects on the environment (UK Rapporteur Monograph, 1996). In 2000, the United Kingdom for the European Commission also concluded it is not appropriate to classify atrazine as a carcinogen (UK Rapporteur Monograph, 2000). 

UK Rapporteur Monograph (1996). Atrazine Report and Proposed Decision of the United Kingdom made to the European Commission under Article 7(1) of Regulation 3600/92. 3 Volumes, 690 pp. 

Multi-component hydrocarbon standards to provide accurate calibration of instruments (generally gas chromatographs) used to monitor the concentrations of a wide range of volatile organic hydrocarbon compounds (VOCs) in ambient air. These standards currently contain 30 different hydrocarbon species that are important to photochemical ozone formation, with concentrations ranging down to a few parts per billion by molar value. They are disseminated widely in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe as calibration standards, and as test mixtures for assessment of the quality of international ambient hydrocarbon measurements (often under the auspices of the European Commission - EC). 

Commission Decision of 28 November 2001 (COM(2001) 3739 final), State aid No. N416/2001 - United Kingdom Emission Trading Scheme (available at http //www.europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat general/sgb/state aids/comp-2001/ n416-01.pdf), p. 9, para. Vl(b). 

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