Political initiatives concerning chemicals

 

Of the more than 30,000 chemicals on the European market, only approximately 5,000 have been characterised in terms of toxicity. The 7th amendment to the European Union’s Cosmetics Directive and the soon-to-be-implemented REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) proposal will dramatically increase the need for toxicity  testing in the near future. The 7th amendment to the Cosmetics Directive is already in effect and  prohibits the sale after March 2009 of products whose ingredients have been tested on animals. The much more all-encompassing REACH proposal of the European Commission will require producers and importers of chemicals to the European Union to determine the toxicity of all chemicals sold in quantities in excess of 1 ton per annum. The REACH Regulation likely comes into effect in 2007. It has been estimated that in excess of 4 million laboratory animals would be needed if these toxicity tests were carried out using conventional in-vivo tests and about a third of these animals would be needed for LD50 testing of acute toxicity.