2013-01-30 15:30:20
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), environmental health includes those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by the physical, chemical, biological, social, psychosocial and aesthetic factors of our environment . It also concerns the policy and practices of management, resorption, control and prevention of environmental factors likely to affect the health of current and future generations.
It is therefore a very broad definition interpreted differently by scientific expertise and research organizations or risk management bodies.
The environmental health safety mission entrusted to ANSES mainly aims to carry out scientific assessments on the risks linked to chemical substances, micro-organisms or physical agents present in water, air, soils, food and everyday consumer items or objects.
Due to its broad field of competence, ANSES can thus comprehensively understand the exhibitions to which the population may be subjected, through their lifestyles and consumption and taking into account overexposure situations (pollution peaks for example) or special sensitivity corresponding to specific populations or moments of life (pregnancy, fetal life, infants, elderly people, etc.).
This approach is particularly useful in the “health-environment” field since it allows the Agency to assess the dangers, exposures and risks linked to different environments integrating exposures linked in particular to the consumption of food or on work place. These aspects are developed elsewhere and are the subject of specific treatment. They are not directly addressed in this file.
Provide expertise on chemical substances, their health effects and possible risks to human health
Questions regarding the health effects of chemical substances constitute a subject of concern among the population which finds its translation in the Agency in the image of the expertise carried out. Thus, the Agency provides competent authorities with the expertise and scientific and technical support necessary to assess the dangers of chemical substances and the risks they present for human health.
As part of the implementation of the European REACH regulation, ANSES proposes to the responsible ministries the priorities in terms of evaluation, authorization, restriction, classification and labeling of chemical substances and draws up files relating to identified substances, in support of the competent French authorities
Within the framework of the European CLP regulation, it evaluates files relating to the classification, packaging and labeling of chemical products.
It is also responsible for the evaluation of crop treatment products before and following their marketing, the development of maximum residue limits in foodstuffs and the evaluation of biocidal products. In this context, it identifies in particular the risks that these different products may present for humans, animals and the environment.
Alongside these activities carried out within a regulatory framework prior to the authorization of substances, the Agency assesses the risks linked to their presence in different environments by integrating into this work the question of the uses and sectors using these products.
A major mobilization theme for the Agency, knowledge of chemical substances and their dangers implies close links between the work carried out in the areas of “occupational health”, “health-environment”, and “health-food”. This involves establishing a list of substances which warrant expert assessment work as a priority and for each substance of interest providing expertise on:
- potential dangers;
- uses ;
- exposed populations
- exposure levels;
- possible risks to human health;
- existing substitute products.
Develop reference values for chemical risk
In connection with its work on the assessment of health risks linked to chemical substances, the Agency is responsible for developing toxicological reference values (TRVs). TRVs are toxicological indices set by international bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), or by authoritative national expert agencies. They make it possible to establish a relationship between exposure to a given toxic substance and an adverse effect or a probability of an adverse health effect. They thus make it possible to characterize a risk to human health and are necessary for risk assessment. The TRVs serve as a basis for setting limit values taking into account the routes (oral route, inhalation route, dermal route) and exposure durations. These limit values can have different names: acceptable daily intake (ADI) when it concerns daily exposure through food over a lifetime, indoor air guideline value (VGAI) when we are interested in exposure by inhalation, etc.
Each year a list of priority substances is included in the Agency’s work program and is subject to a collective expertise process with a view to setting a TRV.
In the field of environmental health, the Agency is, for example, responsible for developing VGAI on which public authorities can rely to regulate and limit health risks linked to chemical substances present in our indoor environments.
In this context, the Agency ensures the scientific consistency of the different values it proposes depending on the environments or sectors in which they will be applied.
Assess the health risks for the population linked to environments and everyday consumer items
In this area, the Agency’s work mainly focuses on:
Provide expertise on physical agents, their health effects and risks
Electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by mobile telephone equipment or high voltage power lines, noise, or ultraviolet radiation, new 3D technologies, LEDs, body scanners are all agents that make up our physical environment.
The long-term effects on health and exposure data linked to some of these physical agents, notably EMFs or mobile telephony, are poorly documented and fraught with uncertainty. They justify research work to better characterize the effects and exposures of populations.
Due to the scientific controversies on these issues, the Agency integrates consultations with the various stakeholders and the human and social sciences approach into the risk assessment processes to better respond to the plural expectations of society. It has thus set up two dialogue committees on the subjects “Radiofrequencies and health” and “Nanotechnologies and health” which enlighten the Agency on society’s expectations in this area in terms of risk assessment and research in these areas.
Produce expertise on emerging or insufficiently documented risks
The identification of emerging risks, or those for which research efforts are currently undertaken (nanomaterials, endocrine system disruptors, very low frequency fields, environmental allergens, cancer agents of environmental origin, etc.) relies on the capacity of monitoring systems. takes care to reveal the existence of new pollutants or pathogens (or the change in state of known pollutants or pathogens), the appearance of new populations at risk, the presence of a risk linked to a new technology, etc. Most of these are themes which are the subject of scientific and societal controversies due to significant uncertainties regarding their effects on human health and which are also characterized by a lack of knowledge regarding exposures. For example, the uses of many chemical substances in products, articles and consumer items are often little or not known and require work to collect data on the pathways of use to then enable information on exposures. Documenting dangers and exposures is a necessity to better characterize risks, control them and anticipate them, a mission to which all scientific units and the expert networks of specialized expert committees and working groups contribute.
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