Chemicals have always been a debatable subject in terms of harm and legal compliance. According to a recent study by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), 32% of the 1,814 substances authorised by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) under the REACH regulation have been found to be non-compliant. The types of chemicals implicated in the study can be found mostly in paints, packaging, furniture and building materials.
The study relied on substances produced in quantities over 1,000 tonnes for which an authorisation was filed under the REACH regulation on chemicals. The non-compliance relies mostly in terms of ecotoxicological risk (61%), mutagenic risk (40%) and reprotoxic risk (34%).
Companies are failing to report to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) whether their substances are neurotoxic, mutagenic, bio accumulative, cancer causing or harmful to developing children or human fertility, thus breaking Europe’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations.
Bisphenol A and phthalates, broadly used in food packaging, are some of the substances that have become household names after their risk was exposed by multiple independent scientific studies.