Eulalee Thompson

Some commonly-used products such as personal care items and body soaps, taken for granted as safe, may contain chemicals that could be contributing, surreptitiously, to ill health.

European environmentalists and consumer groups have been able to convince their policymakers that this is not just hocus-pocus, airy-fairy talk but a real issue, hurting where it matters most - massive increases in health care costs.

It is, therefore, important that health-conscious Jamaicans pay attention to new European Union (EU) legislation (being described as landmark legislation) for the environmental and health protection of its citizens.

The new legislation, passed last week in the EU, requires safety testing of thousand of chemicals, some of them in commonly-used consumer items; its passing indicates that health officials are paying more serious attention to the link between environmental pollutants and ill-health.

Cancer-causing chemicals

Though the environmental and consumer lobby in Europe believes that the legislation (called REACH - Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) does not go far enough, it now requires that industry, rather than the regulatory authorities, safety test about 30,000 chemicals, some of them used in paints, cars, clothes, shampoo fragrances, personal care products and in cosmetics used every day by consumers. The new rules, to be phased in from now to 2018, are being imposed on locally-produced (that is within the EU) and on imported consumer items.

The health concern is that some of these chemicals are carcinogenic (that is, they could cause cancer), may be reproductive toxins and can cause changes in genetic material leading to disease. Chemicals that do not pass the safety check will have to undergo further testing and if necessary the producers will have to find safer substitutes.

The EU acknowledges the financial burden now being placed on industry to safety test chemicals, but also notes the massive saving in health costs expected over the next 30 years by removing hazardous chemicals (which may contribute to environmental pollution) from consumer products.

Motor vehicle pollutants

This new legislation comes on the heels of the publication of a large study on May 14 (See Health, May 23) by United States-based agencies - the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Silent Spring Institute identifying 216 chemicals that could cause breast cancer. The researchers identified 73 of these chemicals present in consumer products and another 35 as air pollutants, including those from motor vehicle exhaust systems. Byproducts of drinking water disinfectants were also identified as possible links to cancer development.

eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com