Chemicals agency seeks national help to clear ‘unknown’ risk list

Europe’s chemical regulator wants national agencies to cooperate better as part of efforts to work through a massive backlog of untested substances.

There are about 2,700 substances registered by the European Union as used in quantities of more than 100 tonnes a year whose risk is regarded as “uncertain” by the European Chemicals Agency. The agency wants to classify all of these into either high or low priority for assessment by the end of 2020.

The backlog is highlighted in the first assessment of a multi-year strategy to bring together disparate processes of chemicals regulation in the European Union, published by the agency on 17 April.