2022-07-05 13:26:41
PARC, the European partnership for the assessment of risks linked to chemical substances, was launched on May 1, 2022. What is its genesis?
SOFIE NORAGER. It all started in 2018, with the preparation of the European Commission’s new “Horizon Europe” research and innovation program. Based on the experience of projects underway at the time, notably the HBM4EU human biomonitoring partnership, it was necessary to imagine how to go further on the risks linked to chemical substances. There was a desire to intensify collaborations and connections between the worlds of research and risk assessment. The project then emerged to create a stable reference structure to set a vision, a course, a work agenda, in particular to share data and knowledge resulting from monitoring and research. ANSES, in collaboration with other risk assessment agencies, had proposed the concept of a European platform on toxicology to collaborate and move forward together on chemicals. The discussions initiated with Member States, health agencies but also stakeholders including manufacturers continued while the European strategy for sustainability in the field of chemicals was in full preparation.
What role did ANSES play in the construction of PARC?
PASCAL SANDERS. ANSES, along with its German, Belgian, Danish, Irish, Dutch and Swedish counterparts, had actually proposed to the European Commission to create a toxicology program, which constituted one of the foreshadowing elements of PARC. The goal was to have an independent data generation tool to address health issues related to chemicals. The Agency was already involved in HBM4EU and other European projects related to this subject. With EJP One Health, we also had the experience of coordinating large European projects. When the principle of a large-scale project financed within the framework of Horizon Europe took shape, our Director General, Roger Genet wanted Anses to be a player in this new partnership due to our transversal positioning on the issues health risks. At the Agency, we are convinced of the need to apply a “one health” approach. We are interested in the different uses of chemical substances in our daily lives and at work, their transfers into the environment in food, etc. However, PARC aims to look at chemical substances and their effects on health and the environment globally and not by sector or product. Building this partnership is a strong commitment on the part of the Agency, which has invested significant human and financial resources to launch and coordinate it, with the consent of our supervisory ministries.
How does PARC support the European Union’s strategy for sustainability in the field of chemicals?
SOFIE NORAGER. PARC is a research and innovation tool that will provide the scientific know-how necessary for this strategy, particularly for the implementation of the “one substance, one evaluation” approach. The principle is to carry out a risk assessment of a substance that can be reused in other areas. Indeed, if a substance is assessed as toxic in a food, why would it not be so in another everyday product? In PARC, the objective is to pool resources and facilitate access to data and knowledge for national and European agencies. PARC will also make it possible to strengthen measures to impregnate populations with different chemical substances, necessary for public policies. A component also aims to support the development of safe and sustainable chemical substances from their design, another ambition of the European strategy on sustainable chemistry. To create alternatives to hazardous substances, we need data on toxicity, exposures and uses in products. All the actions undertaken in PARC are interconnected to invent a new way of producing and using chemistry in the European Union.
Through the coordination of PARC, what ambition do you have?
PASCAL SANDERS. To better deal with chemical risk, we must move beyond regulatory silos and be able to answer all the scientific questions: where are the chemical substances, what are the routes of exposure for consumers and their fate in the environment? For this, the challenge of PARC is to make scientists from different countries specialized in different disciplines work in networks. This partnership will make it possible to interface between research institutions and European agencies, which will be able to specify the data they need, their expectations in terms of experimental methods or software, or even better take into account endocrine disruptors and concept of exposome in risk assessment. PARC will capitalize both on the new methods and knowledge developed but also on the networks of partners who have been working together for several years. Ultimately, the objective is not only to eliminate dangerous substances but also to integrate risk assessment into the chemical industry to support the development of innovative substances, materials and products that do not harm the environment. Man and the environment.
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