The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) recommends that European authorities opt for more protective labeling of professional products containing sodium fluoride for workers, by warning of its potentially toxic nature on the endocrine and reproductive levels.
Anses has examined the potential health risks of this substance at the endocrine level within the framework of the European CLP regulation (classification, labelling and packaging of products), it said in a statement on Thursday.
This regulation concerns the classification and labelling of chemical substances, as well as mixtures – composed of several substances – and is binding on manufacturers and importers in the EU to warn, using pictograms, of the dangerous or toxic nature of a product.
It does not apply to foodstuffs or medicines, for example.
Based on data from various scientific studies on humans and rodents, the agency recommends classifying sodium fluoride as an "endocrine disruptor for human health" and a "reproductive toxicant." It is already classified as "toxic" because it can cause skin and eye irritation.
"The idea is to inform about the dangers" of the substance "used in the industrial environment, to protect the workers who handle it every day for years, so that the most appropriate preventive measures are taken," Henri Bastos, scientific director of Health and Work at Anses, explained to AFP.
"This is important information so that there is particular attention to the uses," especially industrial uses, of this substance, he explains.
This dossier, submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), is open for public consultation - a period for collecting comments from stakeholders - on its website until January 16.
In the coming months, the ECHA risk committee will issue its opinion, on which the European Commission will base its decision to update or not the classification of sodium fluoride.
Naturally present in surface waters and groundwater, this substance is also found in cereal-based foods, drinking water, tea leaves, milk, dairy products or table salt, recalls Anses.
It can help reduce the formation of dental caries, which is why 90% toothpastes and other oral care products contain it, in very small amounts.
According to an opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), at present, the maximum intakes in food or water - a few rare states, but not France, add them to drinking water - do not pose a problem for human health.
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