EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 14: Environment, Health and Wellbeing Humans and other organisms in the environment are exposed to chemical mixtures that can interact and have additive or synergistic ‘cocktail’ effects, thereby exerting a greater impact than a single chemical in isolation. The risk assessment approach used under the chemicals legislation is primarily centred around single substances. A paradigm shift in the approach to risk assessment and regulation of chemicals is urgently needed – one centred more around chemical mixtures and families/groups of certain chemicals, thereby preventing regrettable substitutions (i.e. replacing a banned chemical with an alternative that may have similar or worse effects on health) (Swedish Government, 2019). While hugely challenging and complex, efforts are being made towards achieving this ambition. For example, the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA) recently published guidance on harmonised methodologies assessing the risks of combined exposure to multiple chemicals for human health, animal health and the environment (EFSA Scientific Committee, 2019). In addition, from a regulatory standpoint, there have been new restrictions on the placing on the market of articles containing four phthalates, which probably have serious effects on health because of their endocrine-disrupting properties. However, the issue of legacy chemicals, i.e. those that are no longer used or manufactured but persist in the environment or are contained in old products, remains of concern, particularly in the context of Europe’s ambition to achieve a more circular economy. From the chemical perspective, there is a risk of unintended adverse health impacts resulting from reusing or recycling products containing hazardous and/or legacy chemicals that were sold before restrictions were in place. These chemical substances can be difficult and costly to detect and remove. This issue and its role as a potential barrier to the circular economy has been explicitly recognised in the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy (EC, 2015). The Action Plan is thus committed to ‘the promotion of non-toxic material cycles and better tracking of chemicals of concern in products to facilitate recycling and improve the uptake of secondary raw materials’. This commitment to a toxin-free zero-pollution environment is also embraced in the EU Commission’s current strategy, the European Green Deal. As part of the implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan, the revised Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), which came into force in 2018, tasked the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) with establishing a database to collect information on products containing certain hazardous substances. Companies that produce, import or supply articles containing designated hazardous substances that are to be placed on the EU market must submit this information for inclusion in the database. Due to be rolled out in January 2021, it is anticipated that the SCIP database 3 3 https://echa.europa.eu/scip-database [Substances of Concern In articles as such or in complex objects (Products)] will help to decrease the generation of waste containing hazardous substances, improve waste treatment operations and allow authorities to better monitor the use of substances of concern in articles and take appropriate action where needed. Plastic Pollution We are now in a situation in which plastic pollution has reached every corner of our planet and plastic is one of the most widespread and persistent environmental pollutants we face today. Plastics are chemical polymers. The durability, adaptability and relatively low cost of plastic have seen its widespread use within modern society over the past 70 years, and plastic is now one of the most ubiquitously used materials in everyday life. However, the consequences of such mass production and extensive use, particularly in terms of waste management of plastics and the generation of plastic debris, were not anticipated. The result means that plastic pollution has reached every corner of our planet and plastic is one of the most widespread and persistent environmental pollutants we face today. Of particular concern is the issue of microplastics – small plastic particles less than 5 mm in length. Microplastics can be intentionally manufactured as additives for various consumer products, such as cosmetics and cleaning products, but can also be formed from the breakdown of larger plastic products, shed from synthetic clothing during washing and produced by car tyres during abrasion while driving. The pathway by which such contaminants reach our water environment is relatively clear (e.g. urban run-off, industrial effluent discharges, breakdown of marine litter), but new research by Roblin et al. (2020) has identified the presence of microplastics in the air we breathe, including at remote locations on the west coast, implying the global nature of this challenge. 369