Following the workshop organized this week by ECHA with the Member states, the selection critera for substances evaluation has been agreed upon.

The Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP) is designed to address the evaluation of substances for which there is a concern, in order to clarify if they do constitute a risk. This process could lead your substances to be classified as dangerous and eligible for identification as SVHCs. The last figures indicate that 950 substances might be evaluated by 2021 and join the other 1500 potential SVHCs.

More and more substances vital to your products are liable for a ban in the EU. You may therefore need to monitor substances which are crucial to your products and identify now the steps that are needed to obtain authorisation for your specific use. Click here for more information.

The NGO ChemSec published the second version of the “Substitute It Now” SIN List 2.0, three years after the first one was made public. The new document is a breakthrough attempt to provide a list of endocrine disruptors to be banned under REACH regulation. The 22 substances presented at a hearing in Brussels are commonly found in toys, food packaging and cosmetics.

While an EU-wide definition of endocrine disruptors is expected to be published in 2013, ChemSec believes that the new list will help in phasing out the substances before the definition sees the light.

Endocrine disruptors are one of the several groups of substances, including CMR, PBT and vPvB which make a substance eligible for bans under REACH. If you produce substances with such properties, already now you are running the risk of being subjected to a ban or required to obtain authorisation for your specific use. In August 2010 Germany submitted for the first time candidates’ dossiers for substances which have endocrine disrupting characteristics – three types of trichlorbenzenes (TCBs).

Click here to access the SIN List 2.0.

Click here for more information on how EPPA can be of help to your company.

According to REACH, producers and importers of finished products (furniture, clothing, shoes, etc.) have a legal obligation to notify ECHA if any Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) included in the Candidate List is present in their products above the threshold of 0.1% weight by weight and if the quantity of such substance is over 1 tonne per producer/importer per year.

Today ECHA announced that companies would need to make such a notification to the Agency 6 months after the relevant inclusion in the Candidate list. However, for the SVHC included in the Candidate list before 1 December 2010, the deadline is set for 1 June 2011.

Apart from notifying ECHA on SVHCs in volume above 1 tonne, companies are still required to inform their customer if the concentration limit of 0,1 % is triggered. Click here for more information on how you can best comply with these provisions.

A conference on European Chemicals Policy last week in Brussels was the occasion for Geert Dancet, executive director of the European Chemicals Agency, to call attention to the new challenges arising from the preparation for the 2013 registration deadline.

Working groups in the ECHA are currently working on better criteria to estimate more precisely the number of substances and dossiers to be registered. The objective of this exercise is for the ECHA to come up with a list of substances intended for registration: a good way for companies (mainly downstream users) to identify whether substances critical to their activities are running the risk of being phased-out. With the 2010 deadline, the implementation of REACH is just beginning. There will be more substances to register in 2013 and yet the available data will most probably be scarcer.

For more information on the registration procedure, whether you benefit from any exemptions and timeframe for registration click here. You may therefore need to monitor substances which are crucial to your products and identify now the steps that are needed to obtain authorisation for your specific use. Click here for more information on this.