BRUSSELS – As part of the new European Green Deal, the European Commission has published details of a new chemical strategy which aims to control the production of hazardous chemicals and related pollution by progressively banning their use in textiles, toys, furniture, cosmetics and other end-uses.
The moves will apply to any persistent or bioaccumulative substance such as some by-products of perfluorocarbons used in water-repellent coatings, as well as vast swathe of other chemicals that have been linked to cancer, genetic mutation, or impact on reproduction and the endocrine system.
A key change is that the proposed new legal measures would be move away from the ‘safe’ use of hazardous chemicals to avoiding their use in the first place.
