Communication is key to chemical safety: ECHA, Cefic and DUCC join forces

ECHA/NI/16/44

The EU chemical industry, together with ECHA, has today taken an important step towards enhancing communication around chemical safety by making a joint statement. It covers the combined efforts of ECHA, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and the Downstream Users of Chemicals Co-ordination group (DUCC) to improve communications along the supply chain for the use of chemical products in Europe.

Helsinki, 6 October 2016 – The joint statement signed by Geert Dancet, Executive Director of ECHA, Marko Mensink, Director of Cefic and Janice Robinson, Chair of DUCC, will strengthen the application of REACH especially as the final registration deadline in 2018 comes into sight.

Enhancing supply chain communications through tools such as sector use maps is crucial to the efforts of authorities, industry and other stakeholders. Use maps are templates where sectors can share how they are using different chemicals. Registrants can use this information when preparing dossiers to register substances. Already for some time, sector use maps have been recognised as an important input for ensuring high quality registration dossiers. Their routine use has, however, not yet been institutionalised. This is something the above stakeholders wish to change and use maps will be increasingly important as more smaller chemical companies become involved in REACH for the final 2018 registration deadline.

As part of this commitment, Cefic will, amongst other actions, continue to raise awareness and encourage member companies to make use of sector use map information in their coming 2018 registrations and when updating existing registration dossiers. Such outreach is a vital component of Cefic’s role in promoting the highest levels of chemical safety in the EU.

Meanwhile, DUCC will also do its part to continue spreading awareness of sector use maps that support registrants in generating meaningful exposure scenarios. It will further improve the use maps in the years to come for the benefits of the producers and users of chemicals in the EU.

Finally, ECHA will support industry in ensuring that communication on safe use up and down the supply chain is comprehensive, effective and easy to understand. It will also help industry by hosting these use maps on its website and promoting their use in the years to come.