About the directive

EFSA has published a guidance on harmonised methods for assessing risks from combined exposure to multiple chemicals for humans, animals and the environment, and related outputs on the cumulative assessment of pesticides complemented by a new interactive multimedia tool. The tool has been created to address the main results of report on EU Insights study from 2018, also published recently, which shows that overall in the EU awareness of chemical mixtures among the general public is quite low. It is therefore intended to help people understand some of the main issues and concepts, such as ‘combined exposure’ and ‘combined toxicity.

Ad Ragas: "I am very pleased that there are now finally EFSA rules to assess the risks of mixtures of substances, as until recently chemicals were always assessed individually. In reality, however, people are not exposed to individual substances, but to a cocktail of substances. Substances can influence each other's effects. For example, a mixture can be more toxic than the individual components, but it can also be less toxic. With these new rules for mixtures, the risk assessment of substances is more in line with reality. The creation of the rules was a difficult process. The rules are certainly not yet perfect and could be improved in the future. But the fact that there are finally rules now is an acknowledgement of the problem and an enormous step forward.”

About Ad Ragas

Prof. Dr. Ad Ragas is Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Open University and is also attached to the Environmental Studies Department of the Radboud University Nijmegen. His research focuses on modelling the risks of chemical substances (and other stressors) to human health and ecosystems, with a particular interest in uncertainty analysis in risk forecasting and risk perception.