Responding to WWF’s call for action, citizens from all over Europe and beyond have expressed their concern over toxic chemicals in e-mails addressed to the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the Commissioner for Industry, Günter Verhuegen, and the Commissioner for Environment, Stavros Dimas.

Man-made chemicals can be found all around us, from clothes to cosmetics, and from baby bottles to computers. Despite this, at present we lack basic data on the environmental and health impacts of 90 per cent of substances. Concerned about the risks that this lack of information poses, citizens have asked the European Commission to make sure that the competent decision-makers seize this unique opportunity to ensure a safer future for people and wildlife by putting in place a robust new chemical law (REACH).
However, the European Commission has been recently busier undermining its original REACH proposal than listening to citizen’s demands and working towards strengthening it. Furthermore, although a positive step was taken to substitute hazardous chemicals by safer alternatives, the European Parliament voted on the 17th of November to severely weaken crucial safety testing requirements for all chemicals covered by REACH.

A REACH adopted on this basis would not deliver the health and environment protection the public needs, as it would leave thousands of chemicals without basic toxicity data and so would hamper the identification of harmful chemicals, such as hormone disrupters.

Therefore, it is crucial that the European Commission now listens to the concerns of the people and makes sure that the Council of Ministers, reaching a political agreement on REACH on the 13th of December, agrees to the replacement of all the hazardous chemicals that are identified, with safer alternatives whenever these are available.