Thousands of the most notorious chemicals will be rapidly banned in Europe, the European Commission announced last week, as part of the zero-pollution goal in the European Union’s (EU) Green Deal.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed the move. If implemented, the action will be the largest-ever regulatory removal of authorized chemicals anywhere and covers chemicals that environmental, consumer and health groups have fought against for decades.
The plan announced today, called the Restrictions Roadmap, is a political commitment to use existing laws to ban all flame retardants, chemicals that are frequently linked to cancer, and all bisphenols, widely used in plastics but which disrupt human hormones.