The French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Afsset) is a public body reporting to the French Ministers for ecology, for health and for employment. In order to fulfil its aim of protecting human health, the Agency’s mission is to:
- Contribute to ensuring health safety in all types of surroundings, including occupational environments;
- Assess environmental and occupational health risks;
- Coordinate environmental health and occupational health expertise;
- Use all means to provide the government with the expertise, scientific and technical support needed to develop and implement legislation and regulations;
- Inform the public and contribute to public debate (Afsset’s Opinions, Recommendations and other work are made available to the public and posted on its Web site www.afsset.fr).
The Agency plays a central role in the provision of information and scientific expertise in the area of environmental and occupational health. It also has close relations with both the French and international scientific communities, especially in Europe.
It organises a network of bodies with scientific expertise relevant to its areas of competence and works in partnership with over thirty establishments.
Afsset is assisted in its work by six Specialist Expert Committee (CES).
The Agency can also provide incentive-raising funding for the development of knowledge via environmental and occupational health research programmes.
Afsset can be called on by government departments, public bodies or registered associations. It can also intervene on any issue that comes within the scope of its activities.
Mrs. Emilie Vermande is a chemical engineer in product formulation and has worked for IFF (International Flavours and Fragrances) in the USA and L’Oreal in France. She is mostly involved in consumer exposure assessment and her major input is in WP3.5.
Mr. Benoit Vergriette is agro-economist and he is the head of Risks and Society Unit at Afsset. His input for INTARESE deals with risk analysis for regulatory decision making and stakeholders’ participation in SP6.
Mr. Cedric Duboudin is statistician engineer. His fields of expertise in relation with Intarese deal with uncertainty and sensibility analysis, using Monte Carlo analysis, Bootstrap, surface response methodologies, and global sensitivity analysis. He is responsible for the Methodology and Scientific Tools Unit and contributes to WP3.5.
Mrs. Salma Elreedy holds a doctorate in environmental health (exposure assessment) and has university, international organization, and private sector work experiences. She is currently the Head of European and International Relations Unit and contributes to WP3.5
Afsset's main contribution is in WP3.5 "Chemicals in consumer products". Experts from Afsset contribute also to WP1.4 (Risk characterization), WP4.1 (Toolbox design), WP4.2 (Toolbox construction), WP4.3 (Application), WP5.2 (Internal training), WP6.1 (User consultation) and WP6.3 (External training and networking).
