With this in mind, the Minister is planning to hold a forum on 15 March in Bonn at which environmental and consumer organisations, the chemicals industry and the trade unions will be given the opportunity to express their opinions of the white paper. Current EU legislation distinguishes between existing and new chemical substances, and imposes different requirements regarding the submission of material data. One serious shortcoming of the current system is that there is generally little or no information available about the risks to the environment and human health posed by over 100,000 existing substances placed on the market prior to 1981. The distinction between new and existing chemicals is due to be abolished by 2018 at the latest. Here, I see clear parallels to food safety.
Untested chemicals can be just as dangerous as untested cattle.
Trittin stressed that the planned new system would entail a reasonable level of expenditure and would not affect competition. The fears being voiced by the chemicals lobby are completely exaggerated. Scare stories that 100,000 jobs in Germany and 400,000 jobs in the EU could be at risk as a result of this new ruling are wildly unrealistic. In future, all chemical substances within the EU are to be evaluated equally and their risk potential for man and the environment assessed according to a uniform procedure. In the medium to long term, the distinction between new and existing chemicals will be abolished.