view from european ngos on mixture assessmentview from european ngos on mixture assessment
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Oplæg holdt på engelsk af Lone Mikkelsen i Berlin den 30.1.2013 for The Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) på en workshop om regulering af kombinationseffekterTRANSCRIPT
The Ecological Council
View from European NGOs
on mixture assessment
Lone Mikkelsen, The Ecological Council
Berlin, 30th January, 2013
Mixture toxicity
Call-for-Action
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
The Ecological Council calls on the EU to
act on six specific points:
1. Use the Concentration Addition method as the default
mixture prediction model
2. Ensure the use of the precautionary principle
3. Agree on an approach for assessing mixtures in real life
4. Explicitly implement demands for mixture toxicity assessment
in REACH, the Water Framework Directive, the directive on
pesticide residues in food and other relevant directives
5. Initiate the construction of an addendum to the central EU
chemicals database
6. Not only focus on the endocrine disruptors
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
REACH: a good place to start
• Tackles the source
• The major obstacle for broader inclusion in REACH: aims at regulating single productions rather than regulating chemicals in regard to a more holistic environmental/human health concern
• When principle is in place it should be spread to other relevant legislations
What are we waiting for??
• Clear results from research and
scientific tools available
May 2012: Commission report on mixtures
• Recognize that, with current structure of
EU law, it is not possible to make proper
assessments of combination effects of
various chemicals
• Still propose no changes to the law…
→ NGOs reacted with a joint letter
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
Default prediction model
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
• Policy is lagging behind latest research
• Unfeasible to evaluate all possible
mixtures
• The only logical way forward: reduce
exposure as much as possible – be
precautionary
• Default prediction model: Concentration
Addition model – allows for mixture toxicity
assessment based on knowledge regarding
the toxicity of single chemicals
Ensure reliable
mixture assessment
• High quality of single substance
data
• Also use peer-reviewed
research
• Use pragmatic approaches in
data-poor situations
• Approach for assessing real life
exposures
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
Danish mixture research
DTU Food • Sperm counts decreased by 62%
• Lost orientation – like women
• Cocktail effects at doses where the single compounds
alone have no health effect
SDU • Pesticide cocktail exposed mothers
• Premature breast development, effects on the nervous
system and hypertension in prenatal exposed children
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
Conclusions
• Need for political actions
(scientific foundation in place)
• Eliminate/reduce exposure
• Use the CA method as the
default mixture prediction
model
• Focus on high quality data
The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013
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The Ecological Council Lone Mikkelsen, 4M: Mixtures – January 30th, 2013