News

ECHA Weekly - 28 June 2017

Guidance on substances in articles updated

ECHA has published a comprehensive update to its Guidance on requirements for substances in articles. It gives more clarity on the communication and notification obligations of companies when substances of very high concern are contained in articles.

News alert | Guidance on requirements for substances in articles

Enforcement forum

REACH inspectors find that not all companies are complying with authorisation requirements

Inspectors in 17 European countries have checked compliance with the authorisation obligations under REACH for the use and placing on the market of 13 substances of very high concern with sunset dates in 2015. Inspections in companies that used or placed the substances on the market showed a rate of non-compliance of 10.7 % and 8.9 % respectively.

Press release | Final report

More enforcement on authorisation and registration coming up for 2019

New enforcement projects on authorisation and registration duties are planned by the Forum for 2019. Joint action with stakeholders for improving the quality of safety data sheets has also been agreed.

News item

REACH

Illustrative example of a chemical safety report (CSR) updated

The illustrative example presents a complete CSR for an imaginary substance and uses and it includes a Chesar file that can be directly imported in the tool to get familiar with its functions. Originally prepared in 2012 and published on ECHA's website, the illustrative example has been updated taking into account the lessons learned over the past years and the further development of good safety assessment practice and supply chain communication under REACH.

Practical examples of chemical safety reports

New intention to identify a substance of very high concern

A new intention to identify 4,4’-isopropylidenediphenol (bisphenol A; BPA) as an SVHC due to it being of equivalent level of concern having probable serious effects to the environment (Article 57 f REACH) has been received. The expected submission date is 7 August 2017.

Registry of current SVHC intentions

Summary of alternatives to animal testing report translated

The summary of the third report on alternatives to animal testing (2017) is now available in 23 EU languages on our website.

Reports on Alternatives to Animal Testing

How to develop use descriptions in applications for authorisation

Updated guidance on “How to develop use descriptions in applications for authorisation” is now available on our website.

How to develop the description of uses in the context of authorisation | Application for authorisation

Committees’ opinions on applications for authorisation available

The consolidated opinions of the Committees for Risk Assessment (RAC) and Socio-economic Analysis (SEAC) for two separate uses of bis(2-methoxyethyl) ether (Diglyme) by the following companies are available on our website:

Roche Diagnostics GmbH;
Life Technologies AS.

Adopted opinions

Biocides

Corrigendum to biocides news item

A corrigendum to the news item ‘List of active substances in the Review Programme updated’ has been published on our website. The corrigendum rectifies an error made in the date for when substances can no longer be used, which should have been 4 May 2018. The corrigendum also adds a clarifying statement related to the phase-out dates being determined by national law.

News item

Guidance

Updated REACH Guidance on PBT assessment published

Four documents of the Guidance on Information Requirements and Chemical Safety Assessment (IR&CSA) related to the identification of persistent bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) substances have been updated: Chapter R.11 (version 3.0), Part C (version 3.0), Chapter R.7b (version 4.0) and Chapter R.7c (version 3.0).

The updates mainly address recent scientific developments in the field and reflect ECHA’s current approach to PBT/vPvB assessment. These include the assessment of chemical substances of unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products and biological materials (UVCBs); temperature-dependence of biodegradation; choice and interpretation of various degradation tests for persistence assessment; the use of OECD Test Guideline 305, terrestrial bioaccumulation data and field data for bioaccumulation assessment. The recommended strategies for persistence and bioaccumulation assessment have been refined accordingly.

Guidance on Information Requirements and Chemical Safety Assessment

Board of Appeal

Announcement of new appeals

The Board of Appeal has published announcements of two new appeals. Case A-004-2017 concerns a substance evaluation decision and Case A-005-2017 concerns the joint submission obligation.

Announcements

Downstream users

Illustrative examples of an exposure scenario for communication updated

The illustrative example shows how the information contained in the exposure scenarios developed for a chemical safety report can be extracted effectively and communicated in the exposure scenario annexed to the safety data sheet. Two standardised formats for communicating the information are presented. ECHA welcomes feedback from downstream users on which of the two formats would be preferred.

Practical examples of exposure scenarios

Events

Training on Chesar in the autumn – reply to our survey

ECHA is planning to organise training sessions on Chesar this autumn. To know your needs, we invite everybody interested in training to reply to our survey by 15 August 2017 at the latest. It will only take 5 minutes to complete. Based on your feedback, we will decide how many trainings will be organised.

Taking part in the trainings is free of charge. However, participants will need to cover their own travel and accommodation costs.

Chesar training assessment survey

EU poison centres: state of play
10 October, 11:00 to 12:00 Helsinki time (EEST, GMT +3)

Join our webinar on the harmonisation of information submitted to poison centres in the European Union as of 2020. The webinar is open to all interested parties, industry and authorities. It gives you the latest updates, including the outcome of the feasibility study on the Poison Centres Notification (PCN) portal. Industry participants will also hear our recommendations for preparing for new notifications. You can ask questions from our panellists throughout the webinar.

Materials from litigation seminar available

The presentations from the seminar on 10 years of REACH Litigation held on 24 May 2017 are now available on our website.

Event page

Get up-to-date on biocides
26-27 September 2017

Book your seat at our free Biocides Stakeholders' Day on 26 and 27 September. The event gives you the latest information on the Biocidal Products Regulation from ECHA and the European Commission and case studies from companies. You can also take part in training on biocides IT tools and book a one-to-one session.

Calls for information

Call for evidence launched

ECHA calls for evidence regarding the conditions of use of five cobalt salts, potential alternatives available and relevant socio-economic information for the preparation of an Annex XV restriction dossier: