With increasing frequency countries and organizations are faced with chemicals that have not been considered as ‘contaminants’ before. Some of these chemicals could be a potential risk to humans and/or the environment. These are the so-called ‘emerging contaminants’. Characteristic for emerging contaminants is too little is known about the occurrence, the actual risks and the approach to formulate appropriate policy and legislation. To properly identify how to deal with emerging contaminants knowledge, awareness and understanding is necessary.
Commissioned by the Ministry of I&M / RWS (Netherlands) and the OVAM (Flanders), an inventory on awareness and policy on emerging contaminants in Europe is initiated. This inventory aims to wrap up available knowledge and experience related to legislation, governance and policy. The focus is on the presence and the curative policy on emerging contaminants that are already present in the soil, groundwater and sediments.
The inventory exists of this website and a questionnaire. The website aims to share information about the subject and the inventory. The questionnaire is spread among the members of the Common Forum. Also members of the related network organizations SedNet and NICOLE, which are also participating in Common Forum, are asked to fill in this questionnaire.