In March the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) launched a new dedicated website to inform consumers about the benefits and risks of chemicals in their everyday lives.
While 65% of Europeans are worried about being exposed to hazardous chemicals (2016 Eurobarometer), there is still very little lay-consumer information about what products contain which chemicals and the adverse reactions they can cause. Concerns about exposure to chemicals is even more prominent among allergy, asthma and COPD patients, who have more vulnerable immune and respiratory systems and whose contact with chemicals might cause severe reactions.
The website, available in 23 EU languages, provides useful information on the benefits and risks of using chemicals and explains how the EU legislation on chemicals protects us.
The website has a Trending section for topical news and is connected to ECHA’s chemicals database – the world’s largest database of its kind.
Interestingly, visitors can navigate through a 360-degree interactive apartment, which shows where and why nanomaterials are used in our lives.