Brussels, 31/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - To further reduce risks to public health ands the environment from water pollution, the European Commission is proposing to add 15 chemical substances to the list of 33 priority pollutants which are monitored and subject to control under EU law (the list of priority substances listed in Annex X of Directive 2000/60/EC, known as the Water Framework Directive).
Among these additional substances feature, for the first time, pharmaceutical products which, if found in water in concentrations higher than the levels proposed, could have an impact on the health of fish and impact on their ability to reproduce, or be harmful to other living organisms. The remainder are industrial chemical products, substances used in biocides and plant-health products. For each of these substances there is scientific evidence of the existence of a potential serious risk to health.
The 15 substances are: - plant-health products: aclonifen, bifenox, cypermethrin, dicofol, heptachlor and quinoxyfen; - substances used in biodical products: cybutryne, dichjlorvos and terbutryn; - industrial chemical products: perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD); - by-products of thermal combustion: dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs; - pharmaceutical substances: 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2), 17 beta-estradiol (E2) and diclofenac.
These substances have been listed after re-evaluation of the risks associated with some 2,000 substances based on their levels of concentration in surface water, their hazardousness, how they are produced and how they are used. The Commission proposal is based on the most up to date scientific information on the effects of pharmaceutical products on the environment. Discharge of six of the 15 new priority substances into water is to be phased out within 20 years. The text also makes provision for tougher standards for four substances which are currently being monitored and requires the phasing out of discharge of two other substances already on the list.
The addition of new priority substances to the list will require amendment of the water framework directive and the directive establishing environmental quality standards in water (Directive 2008/105/EC.
The Commission proposes, too, to improve arrangements for the monitoring and reporting of chemical pollutants in water and makes provision for a mechanism that will mean better quality information can be obtained on concentrations of other pollutants for which it may be necessary to put in place EU-wide monitoring at some point in the future. The Commission proposal is accompanied by a report to the European Parliament and Council on the outcome of the re-evaluation of the existing list of substances monitored. (AN/transl.rt)