Professor Andrea Rother, Head of the Division of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health, on being elected as a member of the highly competitive International Board (IB) of the European "Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals”, PARC, Horizon Europe Project. The IB contributes to the science-to-policy dialogue, identification of synergies and collaborations, contribution to open science, and new approaches and includes experts from other international chemical risk assessment platforms, scientific advisory boards and scientific societies, and experts in related EU and international institutions and activities. 

Andrea’s participation in the IB is important since EU regulations, policies and processes have an impact on the regulation and use of chemicals in low- and middle-income countries such as South Africa. For example, currently banned pesticides/chemicals from some EU countries are exported for use in low- and middle-income countries (South Africa is the recipient of many of these).