Category Archives: Mixtures
Comments to the SCHER opinion on mixture (eco)toxicity
The public consultation on the ”opinion concerning Toxicity and Assessment of Chemical Mixtures” by the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS), the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) ended on the 15th of September. Below are the comments that I submitted. For the ease of reading things in context, I first provide the inital question, then the reaction of the Scientific Committees (all of which are … Continue reading
Draft opinion of EU scientific committees on mixture toxicity published
The Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS), the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) have just published their draft opinion concerning Toxicity and Assessment of Chemical Mixtures. The text (PDF) can be downloaded here. According to the procedures for stakeholder dialogue, comments to the opinion can be submitted until the 9th of September. As the opinion is (partly) a comment on the “state of the art … Continue reading
State of the Art report on mixture toxicology and ecotoxicology
The University of Gothenburg just published this press release (in Swedish) on our State of the Art report, which was taken up by Göteborgs Posten, the local newspaper here. Miljöaktuellt published it here, Forskning.se here. Thomas PS.: and here are the English versions: Chemicals Health Monitor, Medical News PPS.: and Eureka, X-Journals, (although I don’t particularly like that they ripped of my photo from the site), ScienceDaily, ChemicalProcessing, EMaxHealth, etc…
State of the Art – report on the toxicology and ecotoxicology of chemical mixtures
Our State of the Art report on the toxicology and ecotoxicology of chemical mixtures has just been published by the European Commission. It is actually open for discussion, i.e. the Commisssion invites feedback until the 30th of April. Our main conclusions are: We need a European guideline for the assement of the toxic effects of chemical mixtures on human health and the environment. Current US guidelines can serve as a template, but efforts should be made to incorporate human health … Continue reading
Talking about human exposure to chemical mixtures…
According to this press release from Reuters the average woman in the UK wears a whopping 515 chemicals simultaneously. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the primary source for the press release, but I guess Reuters is good enough for the moment. And who says that the topic of chemical mixtures is not interesting for the popular press? Thomas
Regulation of toxic chemicals in the US
Here is a short but comprehensive overview of the currently regulatory system for chemicals in the US. Lead author is Emily Monosson, who is also taking up the issue of chemical mixtures in the article: The FQPA [Food Quality Protection Acti] is changing the way pesticide residues are regulated by setting ‘health-based’ standards for ALL pesticides in foods. ‘All’ in this case means combined residues from several different pesticides, or, chemical mixtures. The importance of this amendment, with respect to … Continue reading
The level of human exposure to chemicals
I just came across the Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its the most extensive monitoring study on the exposure of a human populaiton to chemicals that I’ve ever seen. 212 chemicals were analysed in human urine, serum and blood samples. All of them (if I didn’t get it wrong while flipping through the pages) were detected in at least some of … Continue reading
Swedish press releases regarding the Council conclusion on combination effects
I seem to have missed those, so let me just supplement my last post with two links to the website of the Swedish Presidency: The official press release is found here and a short question and answers section with Ulf Björnhom, the chair of the Council Working Party on the Environment can be seen here. Thomas
Conclusion of the EU council of ministers on combination effects
The European Council of (Environmental) Ministers has just published a conclusion on combination effects. The whole PDF is available for download here. In particular, the conclusion stresses that further action in the field of chemicals policy, research and assessment methods to address combination effects of chemicals is required, in particular taking into account the fact that existing EU legislation in most cases builds on a chemical-by-chemical assessment approach; and the council invites (whatever that exactly means) the Commission to assess … Continue reading
New workshop report on mixtures of endocrine disrupters
The Danish ministry for the environment recently conducted a workshop on combination effects of chemicals (28-30 January 2009). Although I was invited I unfortunately couldn’t make it. During the time I was hosting some nice, lively influenza viruses. All the fun you can have… Andreas Kortenkamp from the School of Pharmacy in London was organising the workshop, hence it might not be that surprising, that the main focus was on mixtures of endocrine disrupters. However, most of the conclusions also … Continue reading