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Important safety information on chemicals still missing

ECHA/PR/17/03

Substances of potential concern were targeted by ECHA’s compliance checks in 2016. Most of the evaluated registration dossiers had data gaps and need updating. The annual evaluation report covers evaluation activities and other measures to improve data quality. It also has recommendations for registrants.

Helsinki, 27 February 2017 – In 2016, ECHA focused its dossier evaluation activities on substances with the greatest potential to negatively affect people and the environment: substances produced in high volumes – over 100 tonnes per year – and with a potential concern.

Last year, 184 new compliance checks were concluded, most of them on selected substances of potential concern. In 168 cases, important information was missing. ECHA asked registrants to provide more data on their substances, mostly related to pre-natal developmental toxicity, mutagenicity/genotoxicity, reproduction toxicity and long-term aquatic toxicity.

To encourage registrants to update their dossiers already before compliance checks or risk management actions take place, ECHA sent letters to the registrants of 270 substances of potential concern, highlighting the deficiencies in their dossiers. The Agency also regularly published a list of substances that may be chosen for compliance checks.

The registration process, in particular the completeness check, was revised to improve the availability of high-quality information in the incoming registrations – both on new ones or existing ones. It now includes manual checks for information that cannot be automatically assessed, ensuring that all information intended by REACH has been included in the dossier.  

If the companies do not react by the deadline stipulated by ECHA, their registration will be revoked.

ECHA’s Executive Director Geert Dancet says: “We have taken an integrated strategic approach to target our regulatory activity on substances of potential concern. Our evaluation report shows that crucial data is still missing for most substances subject to compliance check. I encourage companies to take stock of our recommendations and update their dossiers especially when their substance is shortlisted for regulatory action. Authorities need the data to conclude whether further risk management is required on these substances.”

All testing proposals from the 2013 registration deadline were examined by 1 June 2016 as required by law. Altogether in 2016, ECHA examined 164 new testing proposals and sent 133 draft decisions to registrants. To promote alternatives to animal testing, ECHA now requests registrants submitting testing proposals to provide their considerations on alternatives as part of the registration dossier. New supporting materials on alternative methods were also published.

A large majority of registrants update their dossiers in line with ECHA’s decisions on compliance checks or testing proposals, providing the missing information. Only in 33 of 355 examined cases, information was still missing or inadequate and ECHA invited the Member State authorities to consider national enforcement actions on these registrants.

In substance evaluation, ECHA took 26 decisions based on evaluations from previous years. In preparation of further decisions, Member States evaluated 48 substances in 2015-2016 and concluded that 32 required further information from registrants to clarify the suspected concerns. Furthermore, 20 substance evaluation conclusions were published. 11 of them concluded that the risks are sufficiently controlled with existing measures, and 9 concluded that EU-wide risk management measures are necessary.

The report also gives specific recommendations for future and existing registrants.