Chemical compliance… what’s happening?

What’s happening with regard to chemical regulations internationally? Here are some updates we’ve prepared for you for December 2021.

EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability

The strategy will bring changes to chemical compliance – stay tuned for legislative updates in 2022.

The European Union’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) marked its one-year anniversary in October. It is an integral part of the EU’s ‘Zero pollution vision for 2050: a Healthy Planet for All’ – which is a key commitment of the European Green Deal.

The goals in the CSS will inevitably trigger revision and strengthening of chemical and environmental legislation, including the EU REACH and Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulations.  Final proposals are expected by the end of 2022.

The chemical and environmental services offered by Landbell Group company H2 Compliance already support the actions foreseen by the CSS. These services assist their clients in preparing for and implementing the requirements, while ensuring the integrity of their products and supply chains: from ‘safe and sustainable by design’ at the start of the product life cycle to waste treatment solutions at its end-of-life.

For REACH, the proposed changes affecting chemical compliance for many clients include:

• banning the most harmful chemicals in consumer products, such as endocrine disruptors and persistent and bio-accumulative substances, permitting only their essential use
• introducing registration for certain polymers of concern, which are currently exempt
• introducing a mixture assessment factor, accounting for the ‘cocktail’ effect of components, and
• extending information requirements and amending data to be included in the Chemical Safety Report (CSR)

The intention for CLP is to add new hazard classes for:

• endocrine disrupters
• persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substances
• terrestrial toxicity, immunotoxicity and developmental neurotoxicity, and
• persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) substances.

The criteria for the new hazard classes are still under development.

Another action set by the CSS is to establish a simpler and more consistent ‘one substance one assessment’ process for the risk and hazard assessment of chemicals across regulations.

This will trigger legislative changes for specific industries. The review of the EU Cosmetic Products Regulation, with a proposal expected by the end of 2022, is one example affecting a lot of H2 Compliance’s clients.

The revision potentially involves expanding its scope to address environmental endpoints. It also echoes REACH and CLP measures in banning the most harmful substances, such as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, endocrine disrupters, immunotoxic and neurotoxic chemicals and those toxic to specific organs.

H2 Compliance are closely monitoring these developments and providing timely support to clients. To name but a few topics, they have already observed an increased interest in assessing the potential implications of endocrine disrupters’ classification or polymers’ registration.

Their advice is to start planning early and to get in touch here for support.

New report on the use of SVHC under REACH

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published a new report examining the impact of the REACH authorisation process on the use of substances of very high concern (SVHC). For this purpose, two case studies were conducted. According to ECHA, the results indicate a significant link.

The first case study concludes that companies in Sweden have reduced the annual use of SVHC by about 40% five years after their inclusion in the authorisation list.

The second case study indicates that inclusion on the candidate list can reduce the release of substances into wastewater. For example, after it was included on the candidate list, the discharge of 1,2-dichloroethane decreased by 66% between 2011 and 2017.

ECHA would like to extend the studies as soon as sufficient data from other Member States are available.