They are found absolutely everywhere: in our mattresses, our children’s diapers, plastic toys, our car seats, our clothes… Carcinogenic chemicals, causing endocrine disruption, involved in obesity, or even harmful to the environment are omnipresent. Europe is launching a massive plan to ban the use of several thousand of these products with the ideal of a healthy environment for 2030, reports Le Monde.
Six families of hazardous substances are singled out, and the NGO European Environmental Bureau (EEB) explains to AFP that all substances of the same family would be “considered as dangerous as the most harmful”.
300 million tons of chemical products per year in Europe
Among the latter we find carcinogens and endocrine disruptors such as bisphenols, which are often found in food containers, additives such as phthalates or PFAS. Also covered are flame retardants found in clothing or the manufacture of mattresses, and polyvinyl chlorides (PVC) which are criticized for being very difficult to recycle and which are widely used for toys.
Every year in Europe, these are 300 million tons of chemicals that are usedaccording to Eurostat figures, of which 74% poses a problem for both the environment and human health. If the global use of substances used in the petrochemical industry must be regulated differently by 2025, Europe would like to ban the substances mentioned above in an accelerated way, without waiting for the new methodology to be adopted.
Sources: Le Monde, AFP.
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