All talk, little action: precaution and European chemicals regulation

Abstract

The European Union has chosen the precautionary principle as a key guiding principle to achieve more effective policy-making on risks, by moving away from preventive regulation towards more precautionary regulation. Precautionary language has been a part of European Community law for over a decade; however, whether its establishment has had any real effect on European policymaking and regulations is more unclear. This article examines whether the introduction of precautionary language in Community texts has had an effect on the process by which potential risks associated with hazardous chemicals are managed. The article focuses on the two cases of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and covers the time before, during, and after the Community introduction of the precautionary principle. The article finds that there has been a marked change in the way environmental risks are conceptualized and discussed, but a clear effect in regulatory practice has yet to be seen. Current proposals to revise Community chemicals management, however, contain elements that could enhance precautionary regulation.

Participatory Governance in the EU

“…The Union was also the world's leading exporter and importer of chemicals (CEFIC 2005). Over the course of the law-making process, therefore, the Commission grew more concerned with the competitiveness of European industry, and started to downplay environmental concerns (Eckley and Selin 2004;Pesendorfer 2006). As Christian Hey and his co-authors (2007: 1871) note:…”

Potential risk assessment of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) by consuming animal-derived foods collected from interior areas of China

“…PBDEs are a group of persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals widely used in electronic appliances, plastics, textiles, polyurethane foam, and various other consumer products. Commercial production of PBDEs began in the 1970s (Eckley and Selin 2004), and reports of their presence in the environment began surfacing in the early 1980s (Staskal et al 2008). There are three commercial PBDE products.…”

The Structure of Conflict over EU Chemicals Policy

“…The basic rationale for using production volume as a priority-setting tool is that it can be used as a proxy for potential risks. This has been one of the debated issues regarding REACH, along with issues such as the general applicability of the precautionary principle, that is, that risk-reducing actions should be taken even if there is uncertainty about the precise nature or magnitude of potential damage, and the substitution principle, that is, that hazardous substances are to be replaced by safer alternatives whenever possible (Eckley and Selin, 2004;Pesendorfer, 2006). Moreover, the powers of the proposed European Chemicals Agency have been debated, as well as the extent to which companies will be able to submit group applications in consortia when registering similar substances with the agency, that is, the 'One Substance, One Registration' (OSOR) principle.…”