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European Union Safe chemicals

Analysis: What it will take for the EU to be a model for safe chemicals

Exploring the kinds of leaders that can push the new EU chemicals strategy in a healthy, sustainable direction.

The European Union has a new strategy to deal with the vast amounts of chemicals we are exposed to each day.


The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability aims to be the most health-protective chemical strategy in the world. But it will take the right leaders.

In this four-part series Terrence J. Collins, a Teresa Heinz professor of green chemistry, and director of the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University, examines what qualities of leadership are essential for ensuring that the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability inspires trust in Europeans and the world that there can be a body of chemical products and processes we can safely live with.

In addition, watch our conversation with Pete Myers — chief scientist and founder of Environmental Health Sciences, which publishes EHN.org — about the new EU strategy, why it’s important, and its implications for chemical reform in the United States.

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The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability aims to be the most health-protective chemical strategy in the world. When it comes to protecting their citizens from chemicals, what do European policy makers know that U.S. regulators don't?

Contact those in charge of making regulatory decisions at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

  • Write Susan T. Mayne, Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, at: Susan.Mayne@fda.hhs.gov
  • Write Michael S. Regan, Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, at: Regan.Michael@epa.gov

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