Ales Bartl and Herb Estreicher Quoted in Inside PFAS Policy Article on ECHA Declining to Review Revised PFAS Plan

Keller and Heckman Partners Ales Bartl and Herb Estreicher were quoted in the Inside PFAS Policy article, “Lawyers Urge Pushback After ECHA Declines To Review Revised PFAS Plan.” The article notes that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on August 27th that it will not submit a recently released plan for broadening its proposed universal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) ban to its scientific committees for review. However, Herb suggested that domestic manufacturers should press officials to consider the amendment.

“Industries that benefit from the new derogations should weigh in during the public consultation on the [scientific committee’s] draft opinion, lobby the [European] Commission, and potentially the [European] Parliament,” commented Herb.

Herb also said the ECHA announcement “seems to be motivated by expediency[,] was taken too quickly not to be potentially subject to reversal by an outcry from industry.”

Ales also weighed in on the announcement during Keller and Heckman’s most recent REACH 30/30 webinar. “It’s a bit [puzzling], what [this actually] means,” Ales said. “This [could mean] that RAC and SEAC will simply not include the proposed derogations from the Background Document. But I don’t think that this is actually likely to happen, because I think that RAC and SEAC cannot simply ignore the amended Background Document. I think what they wanted to say is that they will include these derogations nonetheless . . . but they will not evaluate them in depth.”

“And I think they will just kind of leave it . . . for the European Commission. . . . And I think the European Commission has already several times announced that they will definitely support derogations for industry uses and machinery and all, you know, essential derogations. So,” Ales concluded, “I think actually this statement is not that bad.”

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