The Scientific Advisory Committee to examine the Toxicity and Ecotoxicity of chemical compounds expressed the view that the quality of the reports submitted to it is not totally convincing. Nevertheless the Committee used them with certain reservations to examine the questions of cadmium loads per year per km2 as these are the only ones valid for assessment.

The country to country data submitted to the Committee were few. However, in comparing those made available for different environmental compartments, the Netherlands, apart from Belgium, seemed to have a specific problem for water load and landfill.

It was pointed out that comparing Member States' data might not be appropriate and that one should also consider regions, but no regional data were made available to the Committee.

In looking at the sources of cadmium in the two problematic compartments, it was concluded that, for water, the most important sources were by far transboundary inflow and phosphates/fertilizers production.

For landfill the major sources are household waste, much of which appears to come from incineration ash, and zinc production.

For these sources, the EU cadmium Directive (Directive 91/338/EEC) has an impact only on the household waste source.

The origin of household needs further examination specifically using more recent data.

The Committee also expressed the view that more emphasis should have been put in the study on dietary intake and cadmium body burdens in humans and animals.

Finally, the Committee did not consider the case to have been made by the Netherlands at this stage.