Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

I thank you very much for your letter regarding the Royal Commission Study on Long-Term Effects of Chemicals in the Environment and your request to bring relevant information to the attention of the Commission.

The OECD has an extensive programme in the field of chemicals and pesticide safety, covering testing, assessment and management. The outputs of the Programme are widely used by national governments, including the UK, and by the European Commission. The Programme serves as a major co-ordination point for chemicals control policies in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia. Its work is reflected in many products of other international organisations. The Programme has prepared recently a comprehensive document on Past Trends and Future Outlooks for the Chemicals industry identifying policy issues for the future. Information about all the products of our programme can be found at the website http://www.oecd.org/ehs.

In summary, most of the 18 issues mentioned in your letter are in some way addressed by work in the programme. If the Royal Commission would be interested, we would be happy to provide a thorough briefing on the activities of the OECD Chemicals Programme. A good way of doing this might be for members of the Commission to visit our office in Paris, so that we can also have the opportunity for some in depth discussions.

1 am looking forward to hearing from you with regard to the way the Commission would like to receive input from the OECD.

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