Enforcement Forum: inspectors to look into classification of mixtures

ECHA/NR/19/22

The Forum agreed to conduct a pilot project to check the classification of mixtures, including detergents and cleaning products. It will also explore with ECHA’s stakeholders, whether they can take actions to improve safety data sheets at a meeting on 4 July 2019.

Helsinki, 25 June 2019 – The Forum agreed to organise a pilot project on CLP addressing the classification of mixtures. The pilot project will focus on detergents and cleaning products but other types of mixtures may also be covered in the scope. The timing for this project will be decided in November 2019.

The Forum also discussed the impact of the REACH Evaluation Joint Action Plan on enforcement activities. The plan identifies a number of actions for ECHA and the European Commission which aim to help ECHA check the compliance of 20 % of dossiers in each tonnage band by 2027. Some of these actions address enforcement. For example, ECHA plans to inform inspectors about cases where companies fail to update their dossiers. Also, ECHA plans to prepare a compilation of measures available to inspectors in their Member States. This could be used by inspectors to address non-compliance with dossier evaluation and to explore if ECHA could further support enforcement authorities in taking action when there is misuse of the evaluation process. The Forum will work together with the ECHA Secretariat to see whether and how these actions can be implemented.

A recent Forum report analysing 197 safety data sheets (SDS) identified a number of common deficiencies in key sections of the SDSs. The report also formulates a number of recommendations about how these deficiencies could be addressed. The Forum working group will meet and discuss the recommendations for stakeholders at a meeting on 4 July 2019. The aim will be to explore if there are any solutions which stakeholder organisations can implement to improve SDS quality, with a view to presenting them at the Forum open session in November 2019.

The Forum for exchange of information on enforcement met on 18-19 June 2019 and the Biocidal Products Regulation Subgroup (BPRS) met on 20 June 2019 in Helsinki.