On 1 February 2022, the CRM Alliance hosted a webinar in the context of the Special Action Program on the Essential Use Concept. The event brought together industry experts to discuss the concept stemming from the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and currently being developed by the European Commission.
The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability aims to phase out the most harmful chemicals to protect human health and the environment. To do so, the European Commission will “define criteria for essential uses to ensure that the most harmful chemicals are only allowed if their use is necessary for health, safety, or is critical for the functioning of society and if there are no alternatives that are acceptable from the standpoint of environment and health.”
The event was introduced by Rebecca Lentini, Secretary General of the CRM Alliance, and featured a panel of five industry experts:
Steven Van de Broeck, Director REACH, Chemicals Policy, Cefic
Violaine Verougstraete, Chemicals Management Director, Eurometaux
Mike Blakeney, Head of Government & Public Affairs, Cobalt Institute
Ted Knudson, Vice President, the Beryllium Science & Technology Association (BeST)
Peter Husen, Head of European Affairs, Vanitec
The panelists discussed their concerns related to topics such as the temporal nature of the EUC, the hazard-based versus risk-based approach, the possible overlap in chemicals legislation ad the objective of the essentiality assessment.
The CRM Alliance would like to extend its gratitude to all the speakers and participants for the interesting and fruitful discussions.