News

Highlights from November Enforcement Forum meeting

The Enforcement Forum agreed to run a pilot project in the future to control restrictions of dichloromethane and N-methyl-pyrrolidone. The Forum also started preparing projects to enforce safety data sheet obligations and to check compliance of the classification of detergents and cleaning products.

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REACH

N,N-dimethylformamide restricted from December 2023

The European Commission has published a regulation restricting N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) – an aprotic solvent used in many industrial applications in the EU. This decision follows the proposal of the Italian authorities and the opinion of ECHA’s scientific committees.

The restriction starts applying from 12 December 2023. Some uses have been granted longer transition periods.

We expect that by lowering the levels of DMF at workplaces, 1 300-2 500 workers will be better protected from negative health effects, such as liver and developmental effects and reproductive harm.

Commission Regulation

Webinar: Assessing groups of chemicals: what you need to know

14 December 2021 11:00-13:00 Helsinki time

We will explain how ECHA assesses the regulatory needs of groups of substances and how this approach speeds up regulatory action for substances of concern. We will also go through what information ECHA has started to publish to better inform companies and citizens about expected actions towards the safer use of chemicals.

The webinar will be published on our home page on 14 December at 11:00 Helsinki time (EET, GMT +2). A live Q&A session will be open until 13:00.

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New substance evaluation conclusions published

New conclusions documents are now available for:

tris(methylphenyl) phosphate (EC 809-930-9, CAS 1330-78-5), added to the CoRAP list in 2014 and evaluated by The Netherlands;
2,2'-iminodiethanol (EC 203-868-0, CAS 111-42-2), added to the CoRAP list in 2012 and evaluated by Germany.

Community rolling action plan | Substance evaluation

IT tools

ECHA’s chemicals databases updated

Infocards are now generated for all substances by default. Previously, this was only the case for substances registered under REACH or notified under CLP.

Furthermore, the ways in which properties of concern are displayed and can be searched for have improved.

The update has also brought changes to the SCIP database, Public Activities Coordination Tool (PACT), European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON), the Classification and Labelling (C&L) Inventory and biocidal active substances.

New assessments of regulatory needs will be published in December. The update also includes various fixes and technical improvements.

Dissemination platform updates | Search our data

Video tutorial: how to give comments under dossier evaluation

Watch our video tutorials that show how companies registering their chemicals under REACH can submit comments when they receive ECHA’s draft decisions or proposals for amendment from EU Member States.

Under dossier evaluation, ECHA checks that information to meet standard information requirements of REACH is included in the dossier or proposed in a testing proposal. This information is crucial to understand whether a chemical may pose a risk to human health or the environment.

Part I: Draft decisions | Part II: Proposals for amendment | Infographic: evaluation process | More about dossier evaluation

Webinar: OECD QSAR Toolbox applications for REACH and beyond

30 November 2021, 11:00-13:00 (Helsinki time)

The webinar will give you an overview of the current status and future developments for the QSAR Toolbox. You will also hear presentations and learn how academia, governmental organisations and companies use the Toolbox.

The webinar will be published on our home page on 30 November 2021 at 11:00 Helsinki time (EET, GMT +2). A live Q&A session will be open until 13:00.

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Occupational exposure limits

Reminder: Consultations on occupational exposure limits

We are looking for comments on the scientific reports for occupational exposure limits on:

1,4-dioxane (EC 204-661-8, CAS 123-91-1) - deadline 26 November 2021; and
isoprene (EC 201-143-3, CAS 78-79-5) - deadline 10 December 2021.

Give comments

Waste

SCIP database version 2.0 available

Users can soon start searching the database by SCIP number. We will start processing data submitted in simplified SCIP notifications (SSNs) progressively from December 2021. This will allow users to search using SCIP numbers that are referencing to other notifications. Due to the high volume, processing this data might take some time. The new version also has many other improvements related, for example, to the search functionalities.

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EUON

New data available in EUON

Due to the updates of ECHA’s chemical databases, EUON’s search for nanomaterials on the EEA market now presents some new information, such as the tonnage from the participating national nano inventories. There is also information on nanomaterial form data from the REACH substances database, where such data is available. The portal search filters have been adapted and expanded to cover all the new data. Test EUON’s search to see which substances are available on the EU market in nanoform.

EUON | EUON Search

Litigation

General Court judgment

The General Court dismissed in its entirety an action brought against the European Commission’s decision to identify 4-tert-butylphenol (PTBP) as a substance of very high concern on the basis of a majority opinion of ECHA’s Member State Committee.

The substance was identified as an endocrine disrupter to the environment under Article 57(f) of REACH. The Court found that the applicants failed to demonstrate any legal or scientific error by the Commission or ECHA rendering the identification as unlawful.

Judgment in Case T-661/19