EU CHEMICALS INSPECTORS TO FOCUS ENFORCEMENT CHECKS ON CONSUMER PRODUCTS: AND COMMISSION TARGETS PFASs UNDER CHEMICALS STRATEGY

A virtual meeting of the EU’s chemicals Enforcement Forum on 22-25 June 2020 agreed that its enforcement focus for 2022, with preparation in 2021, would be integrated checks of products – mostly articles but also mixtures, and mostly expected to be consumer products.

Inspectors will be looking for compliance with hazardous substances restrictions under REACH, and also looking across for the presence of persistent organic pollutants under the POPs Regulation.

Meanwhile the European Commission is reported to be planning a comprehensive action plan to tackle the use of, and contamination from per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFASs) in Europe. This responds to pressure from a number of key EU Member States and also a strong NGO campaign for blanket bans. In May 2020, the Newsletter of the European Chemicals Agency ‘ECHA’ hosted a guest column by Robert Bilott, the U.S. attorney and author of “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty Year Battle Against DuPont”, whose story featured in the Hollywood movie “Dark Waters”.