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Water resources and environmental impact of marine litter and micro-plastics in marine litter: evaluation and recommendations

By JacquesDegerlache | Published: March 3, 2012

Highlights selected by GreenFacts from the executive summary of a report by GESAMP (2010) of microplastics in the marine environment and of the JRC report (2011) on Technical Recommendations for the Implementation to marine litter of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive requirements                                                                                                              (An update of the Highlight edition of Dec, 2010)                                                                       

In short: The question raised by the GESAMP is whether the micro-plastic could contribute to the bioaccumulation of toxic contaminants in marine life. Recent studies seem to reveal no increase in the concentration of these contaminants in areas of accumulation of plastic in the oceans and the solutions lie primarily in the management of waste on land and at sea.

Moreover, a technical subgroup under the Working Group on GES in relation to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC investigated the monitoring approaches for marine litter and provides a set of monitoring tools which can be employed for that purpose.

 1. The report on th GESAMP symposium

http://www.gesamp.org/data/gesamp/files/media/Publications/Reports_and_studies_82/gallery_1510/object_1670_large.pdf

1.1. evaluation of the environmental impact of plastic litter and micro-plastics

 It is well documented that plastic litter causes physical harm to marine mammals, fish and invertebrates and instances of death by entanglement, asphyxiation or blockage of organs are common. It is also known that plastic particles tend to accumulate persistent, bioaccumulating and toxic contaminants such as PCBs, DDT and PBDEs. One of the greatest uncertainties is whether this leads to the bioaccumulation of the contaminant load (absorbed and plastic additives), and hence whether micro-plastics represent an additional and significant vector for transferring pollutants.

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Farming, erosion, biodiversity or contamination: the declining state of soil in Europe

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: February 26, 2012

Highlights by GreenFacts from a report issued by joined forces of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre:  The state of soil in Europe

 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/downloads/jrc_reference_report_2012_02_soil.pdf

Eight major aspects of soil degradation in Europe have been identified :  biodiversity decline, compaction, contamination, erosion, landslides, organic matter decline, salinisation and sealing . Further, acidification, desertification or biofuels production are other potential threats to soil integrity considered in this report. All these problems have considerable economic and environmental consequences and could eventually compromise food production.  Poor land management, such as deforestation, overgrazing, construction activities and forest fires are among the main causes of this situation. Read More »

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Alzheimer, cancer : scientific assessments on toxicity, danger and health risks from aluminium exposure in food, antiperspirant and dermatology products.

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: February 17, 2012

A short GreenFacts overview of three health assessments related to aluminium exposure and aluminium products :

1)  the Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Food Contact Materials (AFC) of EFSA adopted in 2008;

2)  the statement of EFSA on the Evaluation of a new study related to the bioavailability of aluminium in food ;

3)  the Risk assessment by the French Agency AFSSAPS related to the use of aluminum in cosmetic products.

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2157.htm

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/754.pdf

http://www.afssaps.fr/var/afssaps_site/storage/original/application/ad548a50ee74cc320c788ce8d11ba373.pdf

1. In summary

Based on the the available scientific data, the EFSA [1] Panel does not consider exposure to aluminium via food to constitute a risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease despite the fact it has been suggested that aluminium could be implicated in the aetiology of Alzheimer and other neuro-degenerative diseases. EFSA also considers unlikely aluminium to be a human carcinogen at dietary relevant doses.

The EFSA Panel established a Tolerable Weekly Intake of 1 mg aluminium/kg body weight/week. Recently, EFSA evaluated a new study (2011) on the oral absorption of a various aluminium compounds and considered that the results did not provide any additional information that could modify their conclusions reached in 2008.  EFSA also considered that the Tolerable weekly Intake of 1 mg/kg body weight/week is likely to be exceeded in a significant part of the European population The French Agency AFSSAPS[2] evaluated the exposure and the potential health effects related to dermal exposure. Their conclusion was that there are insufficient data to establish a clear relationship between the use of underarm aluminum-based antiperspirants and breast cancer. In this context, AFSSAPS recommends to restrict the concentration of aluminum in cosmetic products at 0.6% and not to use cosmetics containing aluminum on damaged skin. Read More »

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The public needs better communication on the new label system regarding the safe use of chemicals.

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: February 5, 2012

A GreenFacts synthesis of the report “ Safe use of chemicals-  Study on the Communication of Information to the General Public”  European Chemicals Agency – ECHA – January 2012

http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/17203/clp_study_en.pdf

Two surveys[1] related to the understanding of labels and the safe use of chemicals indicate that the new labels (pictograms) used from 2010 to indicate the dangers on chemical products are scarcely understood by the general public: only a few pictograms are recognised.  This  is actually not surprising due to the novelty of CLP pictograms and their use not so widespread an ad most chemicals used by
consumers are actually mixtures, and the CLP provisions will only apply to mixtures as of June 2015.  Awareness-raising activities should thus be targeted at the general public and the level of understanding of European citizens revisited at a later date, when their experience and acquaintance with the pictograms will then have developed, preferably after 2015.

For example, the exclamation mark is familiar to many  (44%), perhaps because it is seen in a number of different situations, but understood by only 11 %. On the other hand, the environmental hazard pictogram is familiar to few, and yet many say they can understand its meaning. These new labels, already applied to substances, must have also replaced the old hazard pictograms on all mixtures by 2015.

These new labels and the associated “precautionary statements” originate from the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals and its transpisition into the European legislation “CLP”[2]. This worldwide initiative classifies chemicals by types of hazard and proposes harmonised hazard communication instruments, including safety data sheets (for workers) and labels (for both consumers and workers). Read More »

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The risks from exposure to mixture of chemicals : adequately evaluated ?

By Patrick Van Hove | Published: February 3, 2012

Excerpts selected by GreenFacts of a summary of a recent state-of-the-art report and of a Preliminary Opinion approved for Public Consultation on  Toxicity and Assessment of Chemical Mixtures expressed by the non-food Scientific Committees of the EU Commission.

1. – THE REPORT details the scientific state of the art findings of a project on mixture toxicology and ecotoxicology commissioned by the  European Commission, DG Environment.

According to it, there is strong evidence that chemicals with common specific modes of action work together to produce  combination effects that are larger than the effects of each mixture component applied singly. In the case of such combinations of chemicals that interact with the same sub-system of an organism, the concept of dose addition is applicable for the prediction of their effects when the toxicities of individual mixture components are known.

The currently available scientific evidence as well as pragmatic considerations, says the report, support the idea of adopting dose addition as the preliminary default concept for the assessment and prediction of mixture effects. Indeed, deviations from predicted additivity, indicative of synergisms or antagonisms, are comparatively rare, relatively small and largely confined to mixtures with only a few compounds.

This approach, says the report is borne out by current practice in many regulatory bodies in the EU, USA and by recommendations of international bodies.

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New facts on environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: February 2, 2012

Summary by  GreenFacts of the 2011 Report from the United Nations Environment Programme, Environmental Effects Assessment Panel.

New studies suggest that stratospheric ozone depletion increased UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s surface can influence biological processes by driving large scale climate change events. Meanwhile, models suggest also that in the first half of the 21st century the recovery of ozone and changes in cloudiness will result in decreases in surface erythemal irradiance by 2–10% at mid-latitudes, and by up to 20% at northern and 50% at southern high latitudes.

Reactions driven by solar UV radiation, coupled with a range of effects caused by climate change, can significantly alter carbon cycling in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems by changing the nature and biological availability of organic carbon and nitrogen in decreasing the capacity of the oceans in the polar regions to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Read More »

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WHO fight against global tobacco epidemy – Progress report 2011

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: January 25, 2012

http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_report/2011/en/index.html

(this summary by GreenFacts is largely based on excerpts of the  summary of the original report)

The results presented in this WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011 show that it is possible for any country, regardless of political structure or income level, to implement an effective tobacco control programme to reduce tobacco use. The progress made provides strong evidence that there is political will for tobacco control on both national and global levels, which can be harnessed to great effect.

Many countries have indeed made significant progress in fighting the epidemic of tobacco use, and can be looked to as models for action by those countries that have not as yet adopted these measures. Countries must continue to expand and intensify their tobacco control efforts, ensuring they have both the financial means and political commitment to support effective and sustainable programmes. Read More »

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A report on the state of the Australian Environment in 2011

By Jacques de Gerlache | Published: January 15, 2012

The Australian State of the Environment 2011 report, presents a comprehensive review of the state and trends of the Australian environment; the pressures on it and the drivers of those pressures. It also covers management initiatives that are in place to address environmental concerns and the impacts of those initiatives, as well as the resilience of the environment and the unmitigated risks that threaten it.

The main purpose of the report is to provide relevant and useful information on environmental issues to the public and decision-makers in order to raise awareness and support more informed environmental management decisions.  For the first time the report goes beyond a descriptive summary of evidence to include graded ‘report-card’ style assessments of environment condition and trends, pressures and management effectiveness. Also new to national State of the environment reporting in 2011 are discussions of the drivers of environmental change, resilience, risks, and future projections or ‘outlooks’. Read More »

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