Het Europees parlement maakt komaf met gevaarlijke stoffen in schoonmaakmiddelen. De maatregel komt vooral
ten goede van mensen die beroepshalve met deze middelen moeten omgaan, weet GroenLinks'er Alexander De Roo. Die
betreurt het dat niet meteen ook komaf werd gemaakt over een soortgelijke regeling voor fosfaten. De Commissie
zal daarover met een voorstel op de proppen komen.
EP demands ban on use of
dangerous substances:
EP votes for safer detergents
The
Greens/EFA in the European Parliament welcomed today's plenary vote which endorses the phasing out of certain
dangerous substances in detergents.
Commenting on the vote, Alex de Roo MEP (Netherlands), Vice-President of the
Environment Committee, said:
"We welcome the decision by the European Parliament
today to phase out the use of substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction in all
detergents. This will affect institutional or industrial use, where such substances are still permitted and will
greatly benefit both the workers concerned as well as the environment."
"I regret
that it was not possible to agree on a phase-out of phosphates in detergents for the time being. Phosphates in
detergents make a major contribution to eutrophication of our waters, alternatives are widely available, and
several Member States have already outlawed their use. But at least we insisted that the Commission comes
forward with a new proposal within three years which should include a phase out of phosphates."
Inger Schoerling MEP (Sweden) welcomed the outcome with regard
to additional toxicity testing:
"I am glad to see that we introduced a second
condition to allow surfactants on the market. It will not be enough to show that 60% are biodegraded. It will
also have to be ensured that there are no particularly dangerous substances in what is not biodegraded. While we
would have liked to see more - we had asked for general toxicity testing of the non-biodegraded part - we have
now at least made clear that substances that are very persistent, very bioaccumulative, or have endocrine
disrupting properties must not remain after biodegradation."