FRAM Seminar: Swedish public inquiry on how to manage chemical mixtures and address chemicals as groups

Research profile seminar

Professor Christina Rudén, Stockholm University, and chair of the Special Inquiry will present the report SOU 2019:45, Future chemical risk management - Accounting for combination effects and assessing chemicals in groups.

Professor Christina Rudén, Stockholm University, was appointed as chair of the Special Inquiry with the task to investigate how the group-wise management of hazardous chemicals can be improved, and how "combination effects" can be taken into account in regulatory risk assessment (Miljödepartementet Dir. 2018:25). The Inquiry resulted in SOU 2019:45, Future chemical risk management - Accounting for combination effects and assessing chemicals in groups, to the Minister for Environment and Climate. The report was released November 8. The full report can be found here https://www.government.se/legal-documents/2019/11/sou-201945/.

During the seminar Prof. Rudén will present the report and the 11 recommendations on how modern European chemical regulation can keep up with the complex chemical environment. That is the typical exposure scenario has shifted from locally confined, high concentrations of individual compounds to a diffuse, widely spread mixture, composed of a myriad of individual pollutants, each one often present at low concentrations.

The analysis shows that significant improvements of the current system for chemicals control are needed in order to keep up with scientific progress as well as the dynamics of chemical discovery and use. To develop the legislation is a prerequisite to fulfill the overarching aim of EU chemical legislation to ensure a high level of protection for human health and the environment, and the Swedish goal that the total exposure to chemical substances via all sources of exposure shall not be harmful to people or biodiversity.