Emerging Pollutants 4: Physical CECs, Particles We Can’t See and Rules We Can’t Ignore

Chemicals dominate modern life. They’re in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the products we use daily, and the rivers and soils that sustain us. Many are harmless or even helpful, but some present risks. For regulators, it’s a daunting task to figure out which of the millions of compounds that swirl around us are potentially harmful. In this series of articles, 3E will help you navigate emergent pollutants to examine which substances are likely to attract regulatory attention in the future.

In late September, the European Council (EC) signed off on a new regulation designed to prevent what it calls “plastic pellets” from escaping into the environment by compelling companies to make and follow risk management plans to reduce the loss of plastic from packaging and products.

This is the EC’s latest move on microplastics, which marks a burgeoning effort to control physical contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). It follows decades of work from the scientific community who have been describing the scale of microplastic pollution and studying its effects on human and environmental health.