Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions.

Polar regions should be given greater consideration with respect to the monitoring, risk assessment, and management of potentially harmful chemicals, consistent with requirements of the precautionary principle. Protecting the vulnerable polar environments requires (i) raising political and public awareness and (ii) restricting and preventing global emissions of harmful chemicals at their sources. The Berlin Statement is the outcome of an international workshop with representatives of the European Commission, the Arctic Council, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), environmental specimen banks, and data centers, as well as scientists from various international research institutions.

Review of REACH Annex IV--establishing the minimum risk of a substance based on its intrinsic properties.

Registration is the main mechanism in REACH that ensures the safety of substances. However, some substances are exempted from Registration, such as those included in Annex IV. Annex IV lists substances that are exempted from Registration on the basis that 'sufficient information is known about these substances that they are considered to cause minimum risk because of their intrinsic properties'.