ANEC - the European Voice in Standardization, the Austrian Standards Institute Consumer Council in co-operation with Austrian Ministry of Health (BMG), Austrian Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection (BMASK), Belgium Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Danish Ministry of the Environment (MST), German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), Swedish Chemicals Agency (KEMI) have the pleasure to invite you to the conference:

Hazardous chemicals in products - The need for enhanced EU regulations

In October 2011 ANEC, BEUC and the ASI Consumer Council organized a conference  on “How to eliminate hazardous chemicals from consumer articles?”. We then addressed gaps in the current European regulatory framework for consumer products and identified some options for improvement.

The debate is not over! A comprehensive and systematic approach to address chemicals in products is still missing and with the follow-up conference of October 2013 we aim at identifying concrete options for regulatory action. The focus will be on those fields where national legislation or other relevant rules (e.g. Council of Europe) are already available or in preparation.

Background:

ANEC position paper on chemicals in consumer products is based on two studies commissioned by the ASI Consumer Council. A further study - part 3 - was finalized in December 2012 outlining how some of the current regulatory gaps regarding chemicals in products could be filled.

Key issues to be addressed

As highlighted in the ANEC position paper and the ASI Consumer Council studies, specific European chemical performance requirements for products which consumers get into contact in their daily lives – such as clothing, furniture, personal protective equipment, construction products, child care articles, food contact materials - is highly deficient. Restrictions are based on ad-hoc action where problems have been identified. Similarly, a systematic monitoring of chemicals in products does not take place. Lacking clear-cut regulatory provisions, market surveillance is rather limited. Information provision requirements for chemicals in articles also hardly exist. As a result the knowledge concerning the occurrence of chemical used in articles is rather limited.

Different options exist for strengthening the legal framework for chemicals in products. The conference aims at discussing these issues in order to identify the way forward. The conference programme is detailed below.

For more information, please contact ANEC Secretariat by email at anec@anec.eu or by phone at +32(0) 2 743 24 70