Can there be a better example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? In a disclosure that threatens to go relatively unnoticed, it emerges that at the last minute, vital steps to protect Europeans from toxic chemicals have fallen foul of the growing political backlash against green measures. Continent-wide rules that would have banned the use of dangerous substances have been delayed and may now be abandoned altogether, with huge consequences for human health and the chemical industry.
As exclusively reported by the Guardian, the European Commission has dropped plans to regulate chemicals from its latest work programme after lobbying by industry and opposition from rightwing politicians. The measures – whose details had been virtually finalised ready for publication – would, among other things, have outlawed all but essential use of thousands of hazardous substances believed to cause more than a quarter of a million cancers in Europe each year.
The setback is the latest in a chain of events in Europe and the UK that threaten to develop into the biggest reversal of environmental progress in at least half a century. It follows the revision of net-zero targets in Britain after the revolt against Ulez in the Uxbridge byelection, European government measures to water down rules on vehicle emissions, an almost successful attempt to overturn the EU nature protection programme in July, and a crackdown in many countries against disruptive protests that have often antagonised public opinion.
It means that Europeans will continue to be exposed to toxins that have already been found to contaminate their bodies and be passed to babies both in the womb and through breast milk. And it will even damage much of the chemical industry by maintaining uncertainty about its future regulation, penalising frontrunner companies that have already invested in developing safer substitutes, hampering innovation, and threatening to keep Europe behind the global market on sustainable substitutes.
More than 350,000 human-made chemicals have been registered on the global market and the industry is booming: production doubled between 2000 and 2017 and is expected to double again by 2030.
They are ubiquitous, from the poles and the deepest ocean to our own homes: we are all exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of them every day. They have brought great benefits, but no one knows how safe or harmful most of them are individually, let alone in the combinations we routinely encounter.
Many thousands, however, have already been linked to cancer, neurological effects, reproductive damage and harm to immune systems. And studies have shown that every one of us – including babies – carries toxic chemicals in our blood.
The EU itself recognises that the chemicals are both “a threat to human health” and “one of the key drivers putting the Earth at risk”. And the European Environment Agency identifies them as one reason why the continent, with 6% of the world’s people, reports nearly 23% of its new cancer cases: its figures suggest that the toxins account for at least 270,000 cancers every year.
Unfortunately the chemicals are so widespread that there is virtually nothing that individual people can do to protect themselves. We have to rely on official regulations.
Twenty years ago next week, the European Union published the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach) law, its first comprehensive attempt at regulation, which came into effect in 2007. Though a huge step forward, it was found to have many deficiencies – for instance in getting industries to provide safety information and in regulating quickly enough.
Everyone – from environmentalists to the industry – agreed that Reach needed reform, and this was announced in 2020. But parts of the industry quickly began lobbying against its tougher measures, including the ban.
Its arguments are the same as those used to try to roll back other green measures: that the industry could not afford change in the economic climate after the invasion of Ukraine, and that the measures risked forfeiting public support.
However, the EU chemical industry’s revenue soared by €232bn between 2011 and 2021, far above expectations, and polls show that 84% of Europeans are worried about the impact of chemicals on their health and 90% about their effect on the environment.
Nevertheless, the opponents pressed ahead, slowly overcoming resistance from the European parliament, environmentalists and some governments as the backlash took hold. Last year the parliament’s centre-right EPP group called for a halt, and shortly afterwards the commission failed to include Reach reform in its work programme, delaying it for a year.
EU vice-president Marŏs Šefčovič promised that he would not hesitate to bring forward the reform when it was ready, and it was therefore expected in the new work programme. That hope now seems forlorn. Fine aims underpin the EU, including the health of its people. It is time to live up to them.
Geoffrey Lean is a specialist environment correspondent and author
