PBT criteria under REACH spark internal battle

The EU’s REACH Regulation requires the Commission to review the adequacy of criteria for identifying persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (vPvB) substances that are set out in Annex XIII. But the Commission’s proposals, issued in a paper in December, have provoked an outcry from NGOs, several EU member states, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee and the European Chemical Agency