European Chemicals Agency

Sofia Zisi, director general of Greece's General State Chemical Laboratory, has been elected chair of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) management board for the next two years.

Zisi succeeds Paul Krajnik from Austria's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, who served for two full terms.

In food packaging, non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, carpets, mattresses, cosmetics, electronics, even in drinking water, in food, rain, and soil… More than 10,000 are perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) – the so-called “permanent chemicals” – which can be found almost everywhere threatening health and the environment.

Despite a bloc-wide ban on toxic pesticides that wipe out pollinators, several European Union member-states, including Greece, continue to export more than 10,000 tons of "bee killer" a year, mainly to poorer countries, an investigation by Greenpeace and the Swiss NGO Public Eye has revealed.

No more colorful tattoos! Because of suspicions that they are carcinogenic, the EC prohibits some of the inks that are used in the tattoo parlours. The latest amendments to the regulation that Brussels has made are already a fact and should come into force in the coming months. Green and blue colors are now  banned in some cosmetic products for the same reason.