{"id":414626,"date":"2026-04-24T04:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414626\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:40:07","slug":"largest-ever-ban-on-toxic-chemicals-in-eu-hit-by-extremely-frustrating-delays-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414626\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest-ever ban on toxic chemicals in EU hit by \u2018extremely frustrating\u2019 delays | Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harmful compounds in children\u2019s nappies and toxic \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in everyday products are among 14 hazardous substance groups hit by lengthy delays to EU pollution controls, according to report<\/a> findings described by scientists as \u201cextremely frustrating\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Commission sought to push broad categories of dangerous substances off the market with a \u201crestrictions roadmap\u201d in April 2022 that was hailed at the time as the largest-ever ban<\/a> of toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n

But four years later it has failed to start the process of regulating seven of the 22 hazardous chemical groups and has \u201ceffectively frozen\u201d progress in regulating seven more, according to a progress check by ClientEarth<\/a> and the European Environmental Bureau.<\/p>\n

Green groups say the European Commission<\/a> is the \u201cchief roadblock\u201d to its own roadmap and allege \u201cunlawful delays\u201d have resulted in nearly 100,000 tonnes of extra chemical pollution from six of the groups.<\/p>\n

The announcement of a roadmap with a concrete timeline to phase out hazardous substances had been \u201cvery encouraging\u201d, said H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Duguy, a lawyer at ClientEarth and co-author of the report. \u201cNow we are four years after the initial publication \u2013 and things are really not looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed restrictions hit by delays include lead in bullets, which is linked to chronic kidney disease in hunters; substances in childcare articles linked to cancer and genetic mutations; calcium cyanamide, a fertiliser that spreads carcinogens; and a bioaccumulating flame retardant used in cars.<\/p>\n

Under EU chemical regulations known as Reach, the Commission is obliged to draft an amendment to the list of restrictions within three months of receiving opinions from expert committees. The deadline has never been met, the report found, with delays ranging from 13 to 47 months, and averaging two years.<\/p>\n

Lead in ammunition and fishing tackle was responsible for the bulk of the 98,000 tonnes of pollution the report attributed to delays beyond the legal deadline, with a 23-month delay. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) estimates about 44,000 tonnes of lead are released into the environment from these sources each year.<\/p>\n

Some restrictions have successfully entered into force. The Commission has restricted Pfas<\/a> in firefighting foam, lead in PVC plastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) used in clay pigeon shooting, and a handful of other toxic chemical groups.<\/p>\n

Europe has led the way in regulating harmful substances, introducing some of the strictest regulations on dangerous chemicals in the world. The roadmap was part of a continental detox that sought to regulate hazardous substances by using general bans with limited exemptions.<\/p>\n

It was celebrated by green groups for improving on the previous cat-and-mouse approach in which regulators banned a specific substance only for the industry to lightly modify the compound \u2013 evading the ban without reducing the risk.<\/p>\n

Mirella Miettinen, a chemical regulation researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, who was not involved in the report, said many cases had progressed through the opinion-making stage but were stuck at the decision-making stage. She described the lack of political will as \u201cextremely frustrating\u201d for those working to promote the restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report\u2019s findings are significant and underscore the European Commission\u2019s longstanding administrative negligence in the decision-making process regarding the restriction of harmful substances under the Reach regulation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Commission did not respond to a request for comment. Some chemical groups are no longer being restricted under the roadmap after committees advised against doing so or because the Commission decided to pursue them through a different regulatory route.<\/p>\n

However, the latest version of the roadmap, which is updated annually, has delayed the timeline for several other chemical groups without explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan doesn\u2019t really have a plan function any more,\u201d said Duguy. \u201cIt\u2019s just like a mirror of the inefficiency and the lack of action by the European Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harmful compounds in children\u2019s nappies and toxic \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in everyday products are among 14 hazardous substance groups…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-414626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}