Press Release: Environment: A new approach to assessing toxic chemical mixtures

The Commission undertakes to address potential risks associated with chemical mixtures are properly understood and assessed.

Every day, we are exposed to mixtures of chemical substances, and these combinations may affect us in ways that the individual substances do not. EU laws set strict limits for the amounts of particular chemicals allowed in food, water, air and manufactured products, but the potentially toxic effects of these chemicals in combination are rarely examined.

Under the new approach, the Commission will identify priority mixtures to be assessed, ensure that the different strands of EU legislation deliver consistent risk assessments for such priority mixtures, and fill in gaps in the scientific knowledge needed to assess the mixtures.

European Commission: Memo/12/392: Questions & answers on toxic chemical mixtures http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/392&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

---