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Christmas is the perfect time to buy new things, such as toys, decorations and utensils. However, some of these objects may contain substances of very high concern (SVHC). European partners in the LIFE AskREACH project are joining forces for a Christmas campaign to raise awareness among consumers about chemicals in everyday objects. If you want to follow the campaign, type the hashtag #ToxicFreeXmas into social media platforms and the various posts by the project partners will appear.

Toys and childcare articles can contain SVHCs (substances of very high concern). The European REACH regulation grants the right to access information on the presence of these substances of concern.

Nathalie Homobono, a general mining engineer, was named president of the Ineris board of directions by the president of France on 15/11/2021 (Journal Officiel n°0266 of 16 November 2021). She takes over from Alain Dorison.

In the European Union, the share of renewable energies in the energy mix has increased significantly in the last few years, rising from only 9.1% in 2005 to 17.0% in 2016. This development has had an impact on the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. Ineris, in the context of its work for the European Environment Agency’s European Topic Centre on Air Pollution, Transport, Noise and Industrial Pollution, conducted a study with the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) to estimate the impacts of the development of renewable energies on air quality and on human health.

On 14 and 15 October, a symposium on the results of the MISSOURI* project and of the independent research was jointly organised by Ineris, the Institut scientifique de service public (ISSEP, Belgium) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU, Amsterdam Free University, Netherlands).

The WHO has recently published new guidelines on air quality, based on the latest scientific data available on the effect of atmospheric pollutants on health. They have set reference thresholds for the six main atmospheric pollutants which should not be exceeded so as to limit exposure for the population worldwide and to protect the health of all. Ineris has performed some preliminary analyses of the impact of these new guidelines on the exposure of the French population to atmospheric pollution.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has updated the candidate list for Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). Eight new ones have been added. This list creates legal obligations for importers, producers and suppliers of articles containing one of these substances in concentrations higher than 0.1 %.

After the 2019 National Exploratory Campaign to measure pesticide residues in ambient air (CNEP, Campagne nationale exploratoire des pesticides), Atmo France together with approved air quality monitoring associations (AASQA, Associations agréées de surveillance de la qualité de l'air) and the National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (Ineris), as part of its activities for the Central Laboratory for Monitoring Air Quality (LCSQA, Laboratoire central de surveillance de la qualité de l’air), launched at national level, on Tuesday 20 July 2021, the long-term monitoring of pesticides in the air (mainland and overseas territories).
The first data will be available in summer 2022, based on Geod’Air1 air quality data, and PhytAtmo pesticide measurements.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recently adopted and published a new guideline, Guideline 250, to characterise endocrine disruptors. This new guideline is based on an original biological test, the EASZY test, the result of academic research carried out jointly by the National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (Verneuil-en-Halatte), Irset (Rennes) and Academia Sinica (Taiwan) since the early 2000s.