NGO claims European Commission is letting “dangerous chemicals flow” into personal care products

The European Commission (EC) is delaying the ban of everyday products that may cause cancer, infertility and other harm to health, according to a European Ombudsman investigation. The European Ombudsman is an inter-institutional body of the EU that holds its institutions, bodies and agencies accountable.

In response to the investigation, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) argues that the EC “prioritizes business interests over human and environmental health,” and that the delays may result in thousands of metric tons of chemicals used yearly in various products. The NGO claims the legal deadlines have been routinely broken for nearly two decades by the EC. 

Personal Care Insights reached out to the EC and is awaiting comment. Meanwhile, the EEB’s head of chemicals policy, Tatiana Santos, tells us, “scientists called for controls. The Commission dragged its feet. Why? The weakness of their excuses tells its own story. A lack of meeting rooms to make life-and-death decisions? Tell that to a family hit by cancer or infertility from chemical exposure.”

“Every day of Commission delay lets dangerous chemicals flow into products and poison the public. Europe should prove a greater sense of urgency and move away from them and toward companies innovating safer, green chemistry and a long-term, prosperous future.”

The NGO says EU officials broke the law by delaying bans on dangerous chemicals. The European Ombudsman research finds that the Commission takes, on average, 14.5 months to prepare draft decisions, although the deadline is three months — almost five times the legal limit. In certain instances, it takes several years.

The EEB claims the delays threaten human health and the environment because companies can legally continue using chemical substances that may be carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction or have endocrine-disrupting properties.

Recent studies suggest some personal care products could expose girls to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and cause early puberty. EDCs mimic, block or interfere with hormones in the body’s endocrine system.

“Unacceptable behavior”

The EEB speculates that if the delays resulted from a culture of inaction inside the Commission, they will worsen.

Chemicals that should have been banned from cosmetics may still be present.Environmental law charity, ClientEarth, aligns with the EEB. Its legal expert Hélène Duguy tells us: “The Ombudsman’s investigation shows how reckless the EU Commission has been with chemicals rules. Yet those rules are there for a reason — to protect people’s health.”

“This unacceptable behavior undermines the rule of law and people’s trust in EU institutions. It’s now time that EU officials heed the Ombudsman’s recommendations and prioritize public interest over the profits of toxic companies.”

The Ombudsman asked the EC to review its internal procedures for preparing authorization decisions for REACH, which intends to phase out or control the use of dangerous chemical substances.

Call for REACH updates

Under REACH, companies using chemical substances deemed “of very high concern” must be authorized by the EC. The Commission then presents a draft decision to the REACH Committee, composed of Member State representatives, who vote on this authorization.

The EEB identifies “maladministration” in the EC’s “failure” to ensure the decision-making process for authorization is “sufficiently transparent.”

The Ombudsman says a significant cause of the delays may be the lack of sufficient information in many companies’ applications. It calls on the Commission to ensure companies submit applications containing all the necessary information and prioritize rejecting applications that do not. 

“As part of the upcoming REACH revision, the Commission is obliged to adopt decisions (not only draft decisions) as soon as possible after receiving ECHA’s opinion. A binding act like final adoption would open the right of interested parties to initiate a court case,” says the EEB.

Under the new revision, companies that have their applications rejected would no longer be able to use the substances in the EU.

In particular, it criticized the lack of information published concerning the REACH Committee’s deliberations. The Ombudsman explained that the provided summary records of meetings do not “fully capture” the state of play of individual files or the reasons for delays, such as disagreements among the member states.

It asked the EC to publish “timely and more substantial” summaries of Committee meetings, saying it would reduce public scrutiny of the “excessive” delays.