Inspectors in the EU to target REACH authorisation duties

ECHA/NR/19/40

The Enforcement Forum decided that its next major enforcement project will focus on REACH authorisation. The Forum also initiated a pilot project on recovered substances and announced that its pilot project on classification of mixtures will focus on detergents and cleaning products.

Helsinki, 12 November 2019 – The Forum has agreed that its next major enforcement project, REF-9, will focus on provisions related to REACH authorisation meant to protect the safety and health of workers and the environment.

Inspectors will check that substances of very high concern which are subject to authorisation, are not placed on the market without a valid authorisation and, where authorised, whether they are used in compliance with the conditions set in the authorisation decision.

The enforcement project will be prepared in 2020, inspections will be conducted in 2021 and the report is expected to be published at the end of 2022.

The Forum also started preparing the pilot project on substances recovered from waste, especially related to the exemption from the registration duty, but may also address other duties related to chemicals in waste. The scope and timelines of this project will be refined in early 2020.

The pilot project on classification of mixtures will focus on the use of bridging principles in the classification of detergents and cleaning products. The preparation for this project will start near the end of 2020, with timelines for the project then being determined.

The report of the pilot project on duties applicable to substances in articles was also adopted by the Forum. The results will be communicated shortly together with the publication of the report.

Furthermore, the Forum reviewed the results of the REF-6 project on CLP mixtures. The report of this project will be published towards the end of 2019.

The Forum has also started to work on the first update of its compendium of analytical methods recommended for enforcement of REACH restrictions. Third parties’ input for this update cycle is welcome.

In its annual open session, the Forum also concluded its joint action with stakeholders on the quality of safety data sheets (SDSs) where inspectors identified frequent non-compliances with SDSs and discussed with stakeholders how they could be addressed. The Forum offered to provide its feedback on standard phrases for the SDSs that industry uses when generating SDSs. ECHA’s accredited stakeholders have committed to a number of actions such as identifying examples of best practice SDSs, training companies on the quality of SDSs or developing sector use maps and promoting their use.

As part of a very active open session, 12 stakeholders and the Forum discussed a number of other issues ranging from industry initiatives for updating registration dossiers, discussions on enforcement of dossier compliance and questions on enforcing REACH duties related to animal testing.

The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement met on 4-7 November 2019 and the Biocidal Products Regulation Subgroup (BPRS) met on 7-8 November 2019 in Helsinki.