TOXIC CHEMICALS

This briefing outlines HEAL's response to two public consultations on the EU's initial assessment of glyphosate, and lists our key concerns about the EU assessment report on the toxicity of the pesticide.

This policy paper puts forward a proposal to mainstream agroecology into the policies governing EU food systems. It builds on the consensual vision of a coalition of EU civil society, farmers and scientific organizations to use the FAO ‘10 Elements of Agroecology’ and ‘13 Agroecological Principles’ as a framework to develop the appropriate instruments and targets for EU policies.

Today the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) releases the primer 'Turning the Plastic Tide', unwrapping the story behind the chemicals in plastic that put our health at risk.

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) have published a fact sheet and infographic to call for immediate action against “forever chemicals”, to protect reproductive health, fertility and human development.

This policy paper puts forward a proposal to mainstream agroecology into the policies governing EU food systems. It builds on the consensual vision of a coalition of EU civil society, farmers and scientific organizations to use the FAO ‘10 Elements of Agroecology’ and ‘13 Agroecological Principles’ as a framework to develop the appropriate instruments and targets for EU policies.

It is beyond a doubt that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) impact the health of humans and the environment globally. Surprisingly, we still don’t know exactly how EDCs can harm female reproductive health. The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) has teamed up with the FREIA project to launch a factsheet and infographic - available in English, Dutch and French - to introduce this research project and to illustrate how EDCs affect women’s health.

HEAL’s new infographic illustrates how the upcoming revision of the EU Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation can help better identify harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) within European chemicals laws.

To mark the start of the European Week Against Cancer 2022, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and the European Cancer Leagues (ECL) have teamed up to relaunch an infographic telling the story behind environmental cancer prevention.

This easy-to-use infographic explains why reforming EU rules on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of chemicals (CLP) is an opportunity to better protect health in the European Union.

Glyphosate is the most widely-used pesticide in the world, despite its well-documented negative health impacts. A new infographic from HEAL explains why the EU must ban glyphosate without delay.

The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), Zero Waste Europe, CHEM Trust and ClientEarth have joined forces to illustrate how harmful chemicals in food packaging can hamper the circular economy and put our health at risk.

Cosmetics and personal care products can contain harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and other substances of concern, but their labels can be hard to read. The infographic launched by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Tegengif/Erase All Toxins today uncovers the story behind chemicals in cosmetics.

More than 115 scientists have asked the World Health Organization for a complete overhaul or withdrawal of the organisation’s draft drinking water guidelines for two of the most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), namely PFOS and PFOA.

HEAL and 14 environmental health organisations call on European governments to keep pressing the European Commission to deliver the promised reforms of the REACH and CLP regulations, and to support the proposal for a new pesticide reduction law.

The Green 10 wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vice President Frans Timmermans, Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, Commissioners Thierry Breton and Virginijus Sinkevičius to express their concern that the Commission’s Letter of Intent listing priority initiatives for 2023 failed to mention a number of the priority legislative files expected for the European Commission to publish in 2023 based on earlier plans by the European Commission.

46 European civil society organisations urgently demand EU member states and the Commission to ban all PFAS in consumer products by 2025 and across all uses by 2030.

A study carried out in the Italian province of Bolzano-South Tyrol reveals that despite measures taken by local authorities to reduce pesticide pollution, synthetic pesticides that can harm health and the environment are still detected in nearby children's playgrounds and schoolyards.

The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) will appear in the European Court of Justice today to support the European Commission in its defense over the ban of chlorpyrifos-methyl and the scientific assessment that led to it.

Responding to the European Commission's delayed proposal for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation (SUR), HEAL and several health groups caution that the measures set by the new plan will not achieve a meaningful reduction of Europe's dependency on synthetic pesticides.

A HEAL report published today shows that scientific evidence that glyphosate is carcinogenic has so far been dismissed in the EU scientific assessment that will form the basis for the re-approval discussion of its EU market license.

Health and environmental organisations have expressed severe concerns after the European Chemicals Agency’s Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) concluded that the widely-used pesticide-active substance glyphosate does not meet the criteria to be labeled as a carcinogenic or genotoxic agent.

A HEAL report published today shows that scientific evidence that glyphosate is carcinogenic has so far been dismissed in the EU scientific assessment that will form the basis for the re-approval discussion of its EU market license.

The use of persistent and health-harming PFAS chemicals in disposable food packaging and tableware is a widespread practice across Europe, as shown in a study by Czech NGO Arnika, HEAL, CHEM Trust and six other non-profit organisations in Europe.

Today the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) releases the primer 'Turning the Plastic Tide', unwrapping the story behind the chemicals in plastic that put our health at risk.

A new PAN Germany and HEAL review of carcinogenicity assessments of pesticide active ingredients shows 40 percent of them are not carried out in compliance with existing European guidelines, leading to possible continued exposure of farmers and consumers to cancer-causing pesticides. In 30 percent of the cases significant details were missing from the dossiers, raising uncertainties about how European authorities came to a conclusion.

A new study, "Toxic Soup: Dioxins in Plastic Toys", shows alarming levels of very toxic brominated dioxins in eight toys and one hair clip made of recycled plastic stemming from electronic waste.