ECHA Seeks Feedback on Diaper Chemicals

Comment by June 21 on a European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) consultation on chemicals in single-use diapers for infant and children under 3. Targeted by the request from ANSES, the French safety agency, are PAHs, furans, dioxins, formaldehyde and PCBs. Depending on the substance, concerns include risks like carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, mutagenicity, and skin sensitization.

Two restriction options are being considered: Simply limiting the chemicals to appropriate concentrations or doing that plus congeners of PAHs, PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs.

Access a link for commenting and background information at bit.ly/2Yjhyf8. Those documents include a December restriction report, which explains:

"According to the risk assessment performed, the Dossier Submitter concludes that the risk with PAHs, PCDD/Fs, PCBs and/or formaldehyde in single-use baby diapers is currently not adequately controlled. Analysis of several risk management options (RMOs) has therefore been conducted in order to identify the most appropriate measure to address the risk and to define the scope and conditions of the restriction proposal."