From science to policy with PARC

From May 19-21, Astrid Reus joint the Work Package (WP) 6 meeting of the Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC). In WP6, KWR collaborates with other European research organizations and universities to improve human and environmental health risk assessment. The developments of this WP are relevant for the toxicological risk assessments KWR conducts for the (drinking) water sector. Important topics of the meeting were One Health (i.e. integral approach of health, taking into account humans, animals and the environment), One Substance One Assessment (i.e. integral approach for the authorization of substances), New Approach Methodologies (i.e. non-animal tests, such as bioassays and in silico tools), mixture toxicity and aggregated exposure (i.e. exposure to a chemical taking into account multiple routes and sources). Timely interaction with policy makers from authorities is essential to successfully implement the developed improvements for risk assessment of chemicals. PARC provides this by involving the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and European Environmental Agency (EEA) from the beginning. In addition to discussions with authorities on ongoing projects within PARC, new ideas to work on in the remaining just under four years of PARC were presented and generated. It was nice to see how much the consortium already has achieved and how enthusiastic the researchers were to initiate new projects within PARC.