The concept of One Health recognises the complex connections between the health of people, animals, plants, and our shared environment. It's about understanding that our health is deeply intertwined with the health of the natural world and the animals we share it with.

One Health emphasises the need for a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach at local, regional, national, and global levels, to be better equipped to prevent, predict, and respond to health threats. 

ECHA's role

ECHA plays a pivotal role in this integrated approach, safeguarding human health and the environment by working for chemical safety across Europe. Through various EU laws, the Agency contributes to the management of risks associated with chemicals. 

Its work spans across several key areas, for example:

• REACH: Evaluating scientific information, checking compliance, identifying substances of very high concern, and proposing restrictions of chemicals that pose an EU-wide risk
• Classification, Labelling, and Packaging (CLP): Making sure hazardous chemicals are properly classified and labelled
• Biocidal products: Ensuring safe use and sufficient efficacy of disinfectants, rat poison, wood preservatives, etc.
• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): Managing chemicals that pose significant health risks and persist in the environment
• Support to poison centres: Assisting in the rapid response to chemical exposures
• Serious cross-border threats: Contributing to joint (rapid) risk assessments on health threats involving chemicals
• Drinking water legislation: Ensuring that substances used in materials coming in contact with water do not pose a risk to human health
• Water protection legislation (surface and ground water): New tasks coming to ECHA with the revisions of the legislation. They contribute to identifying priority substances and pollutants, including the development of environmental quality standards, and identifying substances where monitoring information needs to be generated (watch lists)

ECHA contributes to the One Health agenda by protecting human health and the environment through our work for chemical safety and collaboration with others. Below are practical examples:

1. Joint azole fungicides investigation: A collaboration with other EU agencies (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, European Environment Agency, EEA, European Food Safety Authority, EFSA and European Medicines Agency, EMA) and Commission (Joint Research Centre, JRC) to investigate the impact of azole fungicides on the development of azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus, a concern for both agriculture and human health.
2. Microplastics restriction: Addressing how microplastics contaminate water and affect ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. ECHA evaluates the risks and collaborates with stakeholders to make informed decisions on restricting or banning these substances.
3. One Substance-One Assessment approach: Streamlining the efficiency of chemical assessments to ensure that each substance is evaluated comprehensively and consistently across different regulatory processes. This harmonisation across different EU agencies and legal frameworks helps to avoid duplication of efforts and conflicting assessments.
4. Chemicals indicators:  Collaborating with EU agencies and Commission on chemicals indicators. By developing and utilising chemicals indicators, ECHA contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between chemical pollution and environmental health, guiding policies and actions that protect our ecosystem and, by extension, our health.
5. Research needs: Contributing to the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), an EU-wide research and innovation programme, seeking to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment approaches to protect health and the environment. ECHA has also published a report on Key Areas of Regulatory Challenge in June 2024 addressing needs for future research.

Joining forces with other EU agencies

To further strengthen the transdisciplinary cooperation among the EU agencies (ECDC, ECHA, EEA, EFSA and EMA), a cross-agency task force on One Health was established in 2023.  During 2024 – 2026, it will work on implementing the joint framework for action.

It focuses on five strategic objectives:

• strategic coordination,
• research coordination,
• capacity building,
• stakeholder engagement and
• partnerships and joint inter-agency activities.

This will ensure that the agencies' scientific advice is increasingly integrated, the evidence base for One Health is strengthened and that the agencies can contribute with a common voice to the One Health agenda in the EU.