News

Speeding up the supply of disinfectants

To increase the manufacture and supply of disinfectants on the European market, ECHA is supporting EU/EEA authorities to apply derogations from the normal authorisation requirement for biocidal products.

News | ECHA's COVID-19 web page

ECHA to support EU-wide action against COVID-19

ECHA will, together with the European Commission, support Member States and industry in addressing disinfectant shortages. The Agency will also extend some of its deadlines to help chemicals companies.

News

REACH

Consultation launched on the proposed restriction of undecafluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), its salts and related substances

Germany has submitted a proposal to restrict the manufacture and placing on the market of undecafluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), its salts and related substances (EC -, CAS -).

This consultation is open from 25 March to 25 September 2020. ECHA’s scientific committees welcome early comments by 13 May 2020 to assist them in the first discussion of the proposal in June 2020.

Submitted restrictions under consideration

Consultations on three draft SEAC opinions on proposals to restrict five cobalt salts, formaldehyde and PFHxS

Stakeholders are invited to comment on three draft opinions of the Committee for Socio-economic Analysis (SEAC) concerning the restriction proposals on five cobalt salts (EC 233-402-1, 233-334-2, 231-589-4, 208-169-4 and 200-755-8), formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers (EC -, CAS -) and perfluorohexane-1-sulphonic acid, its salts and related substances (EC -, CAS -).

The deadline for comments is 25 May 2020.

Submitted restrictions under consideration

Reminder: Call for evidence for substances in single-use baby nappies

France is preparing an Annex XV restriction dossier concerning single use baby nappies containing PAHs, formaldehyde, dioxins, furans and PCBs for submission on 9 October 2020. ECHA is requesting interested parties to submit any information they have related to this restriction intention to help with the preparation of the dossier.

The deadline for comments is 31 March 2020.

Give comments | Webinar materials | Read ECHA Newsletter article

Registrants: get ready to comment on substance evaluation draft decisions

ECHA will send out draft decisions to registrants between 14 and 17 April 2020, requesting for more information on their substances. The draft decisions address 12 substances that Member States evaluated in 2019. ECHA recommends that one representative sends consolidated comments on behalf of all addressed registrants of a substance. Due to the coronavirus, the registrants have exceptionally 60 days to send their comments to ECHA.

In 2019, the Member States evaluated 31 substances listed in the Community rolling action plan (CoRAP). In 12 cases, further information was needed. In five cases, the evaluation was suspended to await other actions. For 14 substances, no further information was requested and the conclusion documents will be published later on ECHA’s website.

Substance evaluation draft decisions

Testing proposals

ECHA has launched 22 new consultations on testing proposals. The deadline for comments is 7 May 2020. There are currently 43 open public consultations on testing proposals.

Give comments

CLP

Consultation on harmonised classification and labelling

ECHA is looking for comments on the harmonised classification and labelling proposals for:

cinnamaldehyde; 3-phenylprop-2-enal; cinnamic aldehyde; cinnamal [1] (2E)-3-phenylprop-2-enal [2] (EC 203-213-9 [1], 604-377-8 [2]; CAS 104-55-2 [1], 14371-10-9 [2]); and
foramsulfuron (ISO); 2-{[(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)carbamoyl]sulfamoyl}-4-formamido-N,N-dimethylbenzamide; 1-(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)-3-(2-dimethylcarbamoyl-5-formamidophenylsulfonyl)urea (CAS 173159-57-4).

The deadline for comments is 22 May 2020.

Give comments

Waste

SCIP database webinar – recording available

If you need information on how to notify to the SCIP database, take a look at the webinar recording from 17 March.

Companies supplying articles that contain substances of very high concern (SVHCs) on the Candidate List above 0.1% weight by weight need to submit information to the database as of 5 January 2021.

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Supply chains

Tips for downstream users updated

The series of brief documents that summarise the key elements of REACH and CLP for downstream users has been updated. These eight documents are available in 23 EU languages on the Videos, tips and presentations for downstream users page.

Videos, tips and presentations for downstream users

Board of Appeal

Board of Appeal dismisses an appeal against a compliance check decision

In appeal case A-006-2018, three registrants (the appellants) of the substance benzaldehyde (EC 202-860-4, CAS 100-52-7) challenged the requirement of an ECHA compliance check decision to provide information on first and second species pre-natal developmental toxicity studies and an extended one-generation reproductive toxicity study.

The appellants had sought to fulfil these information requirements by means of read-across adaptations from the results of studies on other substances. The Board of Appeal found, amongst other things, that ECHA had not made an error of assessment in rejecting the read-across adaptations and that there was no conflict of opinion between the ECHA decision and the findings of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) related to the use of benzaldehyde in food.

The Board of Appeal therefore dismissed the appeal.

Decision

Trending

Why we care about ‘forever chemicals’ and why you should, too

PFAS have been used in consumer products since the 1940s. They are extremely persistent, build up in the environment and some also in our bodies. This is why they are often called forever chemicals. Tests indicate that some cause serious health effects such as cancer and liver damage. The good news is that the EU is taking action to reduce their use.

IT maintenance

Last weekend from Friday 20 March at 18:00 to Monday 23 March 2020 at 8:00 Helsinki time, ECHA's IT systems were under maintenance. Due to the downtime, daily email alerts about new messages and tasks in REACH-IT were not sent out during that period. To not miss deadlines, please check if you have received any new communication from ECHA in your REACH-IT account.

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Events

Join us online – Safer Chemicals Conference

We will be making our Safer Chemicals Conference available online on 2-3 June 2020, due to the current situation regarding COVID-19. More information will be available soon. If you have already made plans to join in Helsinki, we are sorry for any inconvenience this situation may have caused, but hope you understand the circumstances. We look forward to connecting with you online!

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