Factory workers, farmers and hairdressers will be among workers put at higher risk of exposure to dangerous chemicals under new deregulation proposals made today by the European Commission.
The Commission today published a Chemicals Package as part of its ‘Omnibus’ legislation, which is designed to water down democratically agreed legislation through the back door.
It includes proposal to make it easier for companies to use substances which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction (CMR) in the production of cosmetic products and fertilisers. (See notes for full details)
The proposals put workers who manufacturer or regularly use these products at a higher risk of cancer or infertility. This comes at a time when the European Commission’s own occupational safety plan points out that “Cancer is the leading cause of work-related deaths in the EU. Carcinogens contribute to an estimated 100 000 occupational cancer deaths in the workplace every year.”
Giulio Romani, Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, said:
“The Commission’s plan to weaken rules on the use of dangerous chemicals puts workers and the public at a higher risk of cancer or infertility.
“This decision is incredibly reckless at a time when the Commission itself says cancer is the leading cause of work-related deaths in Europe.
“The Commission is doing this through an undemocratic backdoor ‘omnibus’ bill at the behest of corporate lobbyists who are using ‘competitiveness’ as an excuse to push Trump-style deregulation on Europe.
“The safety of workers and the public should not be sacrificed at the alter of corporate profit in this way. Europe can never win a global race to the bottom that the Commission is entering into and making Europe sicker and more dangerous certainly won’t help.
“Europe’s own success stories should the route to competitive companies lies in high investment, a highly skilled workforce and a reputation for high quality."
Notes
Photo: Photographer: Genevieve ENGELCopyright: © European Union 2021 - Source : EP
Cosmetic products regulation (Reg (EC) No 1223/2009):
The current text provides that CMR substances (classified cat 1 and cat 2) are banned for use in cosmetics and personal care products unless a derogation request is submitted and derogation criteria are met. It is now proposed to limit the ban of CMRs in cosmetics “only if they are classified based on skin exposure”, but not when they are found to be harmful based on evidence from ingestion or inhalation exposure. Moreover, the compliance with the food safety regulation will no longer have to be proved for the purpose of receiving a derogation and natural complex substances with a harmonised classification as CMR will not lead to a ban.
The proposed amendments will affect workers, consumers and the environment as it will be much easier for the industry to use CMRs in personal care products. The workers with possible increased CMR risks will be both the workers manufacturing cosmetics and workers in the beauty sector possibly exposed 8h/day (hairdressers, nails saloon, etc..).
Regulation on fertilising products (Reg (EU) 2019/1009)
Current registration rules for all substances used in EU fertilising products, regardless of their volumes, require the submission of data corresponding to 10-100 t/y registration under REACH. It is now proposed to stop going beyond the requirements of REACH and follow instead the standard REACH volume gradations (the greater the volume, the more data to be provided).
The tox/ecotox data requirements will be less for registration of fertilisers in small production volumes. Since fertilisers sometimes contain hazardous substances, such as cadmium which is carcinogenic, there might be increased CMR risks for both workers manufacturing fertilisers and farmers using them.
