EU court rejects industry challenges to BPA and 1-bromopropane regulations

The European Union General Court has rejected separate legal challenges to regulation of the plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA) and of the solvent 1-bromopropane. The court dismissed both cases Sept. 20. In one suit, PlasticsEurope, an association of manufacturers, challenged the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) description in 2017 of BPA, an estrogenic chemical, as “a substance with endocrine disrupting properties that may have serious effects on human health.” ECHA added BPA to its list of substances of very high concern in 2017. Chemicals on the list are candidates for strict control under the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) law. In the second suit, chemical maker ICL challenged a 2017 regulation restricting 1-bromopropane, also known as n-propyl bromide, without any exemptions for specific uses. The court rebuffed industry arguments in both cases. In a related development, ECHA is proposing to restrict the use of calcium cyanamide as a fertilizer. The substance breaks down in the environment into cyanamide, dicyandiamide, and urea, each of which poses risks to organisms in soil and water, ECHA says.