'Women and children last'

The UK does not have a strategy for dealing with substances harmful to human reproduction — or reprotoxins — according to the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) worker health protection charity.

It says the government’s recently published Rationale for prioritising substances in the UK REACH work programme: 2023 to 2024 “demonstrates a lack of policy and focus on how women are impacted by chemicals at work”. And it has “deferred consideration of a series of substances that cause illness in the workplace into the long grass”.

BOHS reported that “26 chemicals were under consideration for UK REACH because of serious health concerns leading to regulation in European countries”, but only five are being acted upon.

“Of the remaining 16 not determined to be a priority, 10 are toxic to reproduction” and six “are specifically more likely to have other health impacts on women”. They include cobalt salts, widely used in electric vehicle battery manufacture and associated with gynaecological diseases, and dimethylformamide, a reprotoxin used in textiles, leather and fur industries.

In contrast, the EU includes reprotoxins as priority substances within its regulatory framework.

BOHS CEO professor Kevin Brampton said: “You don’t need to be an expert in equality law to read this rationale and wonder why it seems to be women and children last when it comes to UK REACH.”