Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment Annual Report 2024

Preface  

Professor Gareth Jenkins. Gareth is wearing a red shirt, has grey facial hair and is wearing dark rimmed glasses. Gareth is photographed in an office with wall art and shelving behind him. There are square ceiling tiles above him.

I am proud to report on the work of the Committee on Mutagenicity (COM) during 2024. I was also delighted to be “renewed” as Chair of COM in 2024 for a further 3 years.

The Committee on Mutagenicity (COM) provides advice on potential mutagenic activity of specific chemicals at the request of UK Government Departments and Agencies. Such requests generally relate to chemicals for which there are incomplete, non-standard or controversial data sets for which independent authoritative advice on potential mutagenic hazards and risks is required. Recommendations for further studies are, on occasions, made.

The Committee also advises on important general principles and on new scientific work related to the assessment of mutagenic risk and makes recommendations on wider aspects of mutagenicity testing.  The membership of the Committee, declarations of their interests, agendas and minutes of meetings, and statements are all published on the committees website: Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment - GOV.UK.

The membership of COM has undergone some changes in 2024 with members rotating off the committee and new members joining COM.

In 2024, COM published its long-awaited opinion on the genotoxicity of titanium dioxide, an opinion that was 3 years in the making. I’d like to thank the COM members and secretariat for their hard work on this aspect. Published document can be viewed using this link: Statement on the COM assessment of in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity of titanium dioxide - GOV.UK. This COM opinion was published alongside wider toxicological opinion published by our sister committee, COT.

In 2024, COM was also involved in initiating a working group to look at quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) approaches, an in silico tool for predicting genotoxicity. Other aspects covered by COM in 2024 included further discussion on germ cell mutagens and a new approach for horizon scanning.

Professor Gareth Jenkins – Chair