MEP questions proposed rules on water quality
Fears that legislation could affect human health.
Environmental legislation could affect the availability of birth-control pills, according to responses to a European Commission proposal on water pollution.
Richard Seeber (pictured), a centre-right Austrian MEP, said that he would be challenging a controversial proposal from the Commission to limit the contamination of lakes, rivers and reservoirs by pharmaceutical substances used in contraceptives.
The Commission plans to enlarge the current list of 33 ‘water priority substances’ by adding 15 chemicals in the water framework directive.
The concentration of these substances in surface water must be monitored. The substances would also be given ‘environmental quality standards’ that limit their presence in surface water.
The Commission is proposing for the first time to include in the list chemicals used in pharmaceuticals: the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac and two substances used in contraceptive pills, EE2 and E2. An initial idea to include ibuprofen was dropped before the Commission published its proposal.
The other 12 chemicals include pesticides, biocides and flame retardants.
Seeber, who is drafting the Parliament’s response to the proposal, says that there is not enough scientific knowledge about the environmental effects of the pharmaceutical substances to set quality standards.
Health risks
The risks identified in the pharmaceutical substances so far do not outweigh the “importance of human health considerations”, Seeber wrote in a draft report on the issue. “Water policy should not determine directly the health policy of member states.”
Pharmaceutical companies have warned that limiting the substances’ concentration in water could affect their availability as pharmaceuticals.
According to a progress report prepared by Denmark, when it held the presidency of the Council of Ministers in the first half of the year, several member states have concerns about health and economic impacts, and say the pharmaceutical substances should not be added to the list because there is not enough scientific justification for doing so.
Some member states have said the substances would be better regulated at source by product legislation. But the Commission insists that there is enough scientific justification for environmental controls.
As a compromise, Seeber has suggested that the pharmaceutical substances be added to the list, but that environmental quality standards should not yet be set. They could be added during the next review in four years’ time.
Seeber’s report will be presented to the European Parliament’s environment committee at its next meeting, in September. The committee is expected to vote on the issue in November, with a vote by the full Parliament likely in early 2013.
