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The EU HyPSTER project, which was launched in January 2021 and is the first green-hydrogen underground storage facility demonstrator supported by the European Union, is moving forward with the completion and approval of its engineering studies. Once done, the construction phase, which will include building an above-ground hydrogen production platform and converting a salt cavity into a hydrogen storage facility, will be able to begin.

As part of the EU LIFE AskREACH project, the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS) is assisting with the roll-out of the Scan4Chem mobile app in France. It has been available in France for a year now and aims to raise awareness among consumers and manufacturers about the issue of chemicals in everyday objects.
This app is the only one of its kind in Europe and helps both consumers to exercise their right to know whether there are chemical substances in products and manufacturers to properly fulfil their legal obligations.

Christmas is the perfect time to buy new things, such as toys, decorations and utensils. However, some of these objects may contain substances of very high concern (SVHC). European partners in the LIFE AskREACH project are joining forces for a Christmas campaign to raise awareness among consumers about chemicals in everyday objects. If you want to follow the campaign, type the hashtag #ToxicFreeXmas into social media platforms and the various posts by the project partners will appear.

Toys and childcare articles can contain SVHCs (substances of very high concern). The European REACH regulation grants the right to access information on the presence of these substances of concern.

Nathalie Homobono, a general mining engineer, was named president of the Ineris board of directions by the president of France on 15/11/2021 (Journal Officiel n°0266 of 16 November 2021). She takes over from Alain Dorison.

In the European Union, the share of renewable energies in the energy mix has increased significantly in the last few years, rising from only 9.1% in 2005 to 17.0% in 2016. This development has had an impact on the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. Ineris, in the context of its work for the European Environment Agency’s European Topic Centre on Air Pollution, Transport, Noise and Industrial Pollution, conducted a study with the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) to estimate the impacts of the development of renewable energies on air quality and on human health.

On 14 and 15 October, a symposium on the results of the MISSOURI* project and of the independent research was jointly organised by Ineris, the Institut scientifique de service public (ISSEP, Belgium) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU, Amsterdam Free University, Netherlands).

The WHO has recently published new guidelines on air quality, based on the latest scientific data available on the effect of atmospheric pollutants on health. They have set reference thresholds for the six main atmospheric pollutants which should not be exceeded so as to limit exposure for the population worldwide and to protect the health of all. Ineris has performed some preliminary analyses of the impact of these new guidelines on the exposure of the French population to atmospheric pollution.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has updated the candidate list for Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). Eight new ones have been added. This list creates legal obligations for importers, producers and suppliers of articles containing one of these substances in concentrations higher than 0.1 %.