Member States to evaluate 22 substances in 2017

ECHA/NA/17/06

ECHA has adopted the updated Community rolling action plan (CoRAP) which starts the evaluation for the 22 substances listed for 2017. Registrants of the listed substances are encouraged to coordinate their actions and contact the evaluating Member States.

Helsinki, 21 March 2017 – In the coming three years, 22 Member States will evaluate 115 substances, out of which 22 are newly-selected and 93 have been selected earlier. From the date of adoption, the Member States have 12 months to evaluate the 22 substances specified for 2017. If needed, the evaluating Member State will prepare a proposal for an ECHA decision to request further information from registrants to clarify the suspected risks.

The substances are selected for substance evaluation to clarify the concerns related to their exposure and suspected serious hazard properties (persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT), carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) or endocrine disruptors in combination with wide dispersive consumer use). In addition, other concerns on the substances may be identified during evaluation.

ECHA encourages registrants of the listed substances to coordinate their actions and contact the evaluating Member State. Registrants are also urged to communicate the up-to-date use and exposure scenarios of their substances. They will have an opportunity to comment before any decision to request further information is taken. Such draft decisions will be reviewed by the other Member States and ECHA before the final decision is issued. 

The plan for 2017-2019 was prepared in close cooperation with the Member States, taking into account the agreed risk-based criteria to select the substances. The draft has been available on ECHA’s website since 27 October 2016.

In comparison to the previous plan for 2016-2018, six substances were withdrawn at the request of the evaluating Member States and one substance was added.

The number of substances to be evaluted in 2017 is lower than in previous plans and several evaluations have been postponed to 2018 and 2019. This is to allow a compliance check to be done first to address possible gaps in standard information and to confirm that the substance is a priority for substance evaluation. Once the compliance check is concluded, the postponed substances will be reviewed to see if there are remaining concerns warranting substance evaluation.