Enhancing the use of exposure science across EU chemical policies as part of the European Exposure Science Strategy 2020−2030

Exposure science is an essential part of European Union (EU) legal instruments dealing with safety, security and sustainability with regard to chemicals. Over time, legal requirements for exposure-related information have been designed to meet policy-specific needs at the cost of limited harmonization, leading to inefficiencies in regulatory assessment procedures. With the involvement of more than 100 stakeholders, a European Strategy on Exposure Science 2020–2030 was developed to identify key requirements and actions, to align and strengthen the cross-policy adoption of exposure data and exposure estimation tools across current and future EU legislation. This will constitute an important step towards the implementation of the EU Green Deal and its underlying policy strategies, such as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. In the present paper, we summarize the current use of exposure science across EU legislation and recommend the development of a common scientific exposure assessment framework, supported by baseline acceptance criteria and a shared knowledge base enhancing exchangeability and acceptability for exposure information. Building on existing policy initiatives (e.g. ‘One Substance – One Assessment’), such framework will boost the multi-use of measured and modelled exposure data, tools and assessment outcomes within and across EU chemicals-related policies. Furthermore, such framework will improve communication and management across EU chemical safety, security and sustainability policies comprising sourcing, manufacturing and global trade of goods, and waste management. In support of building such a common framework its effective use in policy and industry, exposure science innovation needs to be better embedded along the whole policy-making cycle, and be integrated into companies’ safety and sustainability management systems. This will help to systemically improve regulatory risk management practices.

BRUINEN DE BRUIN Yuri;  FRANCO Antonio;  AHRENS Andreas;  MORRIS Alick;  VERHAGEN Hans;  KEPHALOPOULOS Stylianos;  DULIO Valeria;  SLOBODNIK Jaroslav;  SIJM Dick;  VERMEIRE Theodorus Gabriël (Theo);  ITO Takaaki;  TAKAKI Koki;  DE MELLO Jonathas;  BESSEMS Jos;  ZARE JEDDI Maryam;  TANARRO GOZALO Celia;  POLLARD Kevin;  MCCOURT Josephine;  FANTKE Peter; 

2022-11-24

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

JRC124572

1559-0631 (online),   

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-021-00388-4,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124572,   

10.1038/s41370-021-00388-4 (online),