Santé publique France, in collaboration with ANSES, is issuing a call for expressions of interest to invite stakeholders to participate in the French hub of the European partnership project PARC (Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals).
thematic dossier
Launched in May 2022 in France, the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) brings together nearly 200 scientific partners from 28 countries and European Union...
Numerous sector-specific initiatives, policies, and regulations have been implemented to regulate chemicals and minimize their impacts on human health and the environment. The European Union’s “Horizon Europe” Framework Program for 2021–2027 has selected the PARC project—the European Partnership for Chemical Risk Assessment—for funding.
Coordinated by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), this large-scale partnership aims to develop an innovative methodological framework for assessing the risks of next-generation chemicals, integrating human health, ecosystem health, and environmental monitoring. Approved by the European Commission in January 2022, the project launched on May 1.
Santé Publique France is a co-signatory of the consortium agreement and co-coordinator of Work Package (WP) 4, which aims to monitor and measure exposure to chemicals in humans and the environment. The agency also serves as the national contact point responsible for coordinating the Hub for the network of French stakeholders involved in the project.
a 7-year partnership under Horizon Europe, the EU’s framework program for research and innovation funding for 2021–2027;
200 partners from 28 countries and at the European level, including national agencies and research organizations in the fields of the environment and public health, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the European Environment Agency (EEA);
a budget of €400 million, 50% funded by the European Union and 50% by the Member States.
The primary objective of the PARC project is to bring together the scientific community within a transdisciplinary network to set research and innovation priorities regarding chemical risk assessment. Thus, each participating country benefits from a national hub to coordinate exchanges with all relevant stakeholders (ministries, national partners, and other involved national stakeholders) and contribute to developing synergies with national initiatives. In France, the hub will serve as a forum for exchange and communication for all French stakeholders involved in and interested in PARC.
The call for expressions of interest launched today aims to identify stakeholders interested in the partnership who will form this French hub. It is intended for any organization, federation, association, industry representative, or public policy actor involved in chemical risk and exposure to chemical substances and wishing to participate in this collaborative project.
The call for expressions of interest is addressed to:
Environmental NGOs
Workers’ federations and associations
Consumer associations
Professional associations
Industrialists
Learn more
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Given the partnership’s ambitions, Santé publique France wanted to be heavily involved in the PARC project, particularly in WP4.
In line with the Agency’s strategy regarding the assessment of population exposure to chemicals, the public health goal is to prevent, as much as possible, the exposure of the population and the environment to chemicals in support of European public policies—the Green Deal as well as the European Union’s strategy for the sustainability of chemicals—or national policies such as the National Health and Environment Plan or the National Strategy on Endocrine Disruptors.
By combining data from human biomonitoring, environmental monitoring, and ecosystem health, the goal of this WP is to develop a long-term strategy, based on a “One Health” approach, to better understand and protect human health and the environment from exposure to chemicals at the European Union level. The work carried out through this work package will rely on the development of innovative approaches and technologies:
first, the establishment of a European network bringing together multidisciplinary communities focused on human exposure, ecosystem health, and environmental quality.
Second, the development of indicators to better link exposure to effects on human health or ecosystems.
Finally, the development of innovative analytical methods to better identify mixtures of substances or emerging substances.
Based on its work on the interactions between the environment and human health, Santé publique France has thus positioned itself as co-leader of the WP in collaboration with the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA). As the lead agency for the national biomonitoring strategy for the past 15 years, Santé publique France will be able to leverage its expertise in biomonitoring to coordinate and implement the work planned under this partnership. In doing so, Santé publique France will also align the national biomonitoring strategy with the European partnership project.
The overall objective of WP4 is to monitor chemicals in both humans and the environment, taking into account different sources of exposure and different routes of exposure. Through a “one substance, one assessment” approach, new monitoring systems will be combined with existing ones and harmonized. The specific objectives of WP4 are:
Task 4.1: coordinated by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research VITO (Belgium) and the Carlos III Health Institute ISCIII (Spain)
Continue the development of the human biomonitoring platform
Generate new human biomonitoring data
Develop a network of qualified laboratories for the analysis of exposure biomarkers created within HBM4EU
Task 4.2: coordinated by the National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) (France) and Aarhus University (Denmark).
Better understand the presence of chemicals in the environment via multiple sources and the resulting exposure of humans and ecosystems in an integrated manner.
Task 4.3: Coordinated by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAE) and Vrije Universiteit (Netherlands).
Develop innovative tools and methods to improve human, food, and environmental monitoring programs, particularly to support the assessment of exposure among particularly vulnerable populations
Contribute to the establishment of a detection and early warning system for emerging pollutants.
thematic dossier
Chemicals come in many forms, both natural and man-made. People are constantly exposed to these substances, which are found in food, everyday objects, the air, soil, and water.
