ECHA updates the Candidate List for authorisation with six new substances of very high concern (SVHCs)

ECHA updates the Candidate List for authorisation with six new substances of very high concern (SVHCs)

ECHA/PR/13/26

ECHA's Member State Committee (MSC) has unanimously agreed to identify six new substances as SVHCs. These six substances are added to the Candidate List for authorisation. The Candidate List now contains 144 substances.

Helsinki 20 June 2013 – MSC reached unanimous agreement on the identification of six substances as SVHCs following the MSC's scrutiny of the comments received during public consultation and documentation substantiating their hazards in accordance with Article 57 of REACH. These six substances have been included in the Candidate List. In some cases, substances were identified based on more than one SVHC property. Please see the table below for further details.  

MSC also agreed that it is currently not possible to conclude on the identification as SVHCs of four phenolic benzotriazole substances (i.e. UV-350, UV-327, UV-328 and UV-320). These substances were originally proposed as SVHCs based on their very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) or persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) properties. MSC suggested that further expert discussion may be necessary regarding their persistency before drawing a final conclusion because of the complexity of the read-across and weight-of-evidence approach applied. Consequently, these UV-substances will not be added to the Candidate List now.  

The legal obligations that companies may have resulting from the inclusion of substances in the Candidate List apply to the listed substances on their own, in mixtures or in articles. Producers and importers of articles containing any of the six substances included in the Candidate List on 20 June 2013 have six months from this date to notify ECHA if both of the following conditions apply:

1. the substance is present in those articles in quantities totalling over one tonne per producer or importer per year, and
2. the substance is present in those articles above a concentration of 0.1% weight by weight.

There are exemptions from the notification obligation if the substance is already registered for the use or when exposure can be excluded. Information on the notification of substances in articles and related submission tools, as well as a manual with instructions on how to create and submit a notification dossier are available on ECHA's website. ECHA has recently made a webform available to facilitate the submission of substance in article notifications. Nevertheless, datasets are also provided for submission of the notifications via REACH-IT.

The Candidate List now contains 144 substances. As foreseen by REACH, a specific procedure will be followed to decide when the substances should be included in the list of substances subject to Authorisation (Annex XIV of the REACH Regulation).

Substances included in the Candidate List for authorisation on 20 June 2013 and their SVHC properties