European Chemicals Agency Articles
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2008 European Chemicals Agency work programme
The first months of ECHA’s activities marked a successful start-up and build-up of staff and organisational structures, procedures and systems. The Agency demonstrated that it was able to achieve the many objectives set in the 2007 work programme, including a gradual handover of the REACH implementation tasks from the Commission. Year 2008 poses two major complementary challenges for ECHA. First, ...
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Substances of very high concern = major market opportunities or products of concern?
Do the products you sell in Europe contain REACH candidate substances of very high concern (SVHC)? While the question may seem relatively simple, the answer is often less easy. Many companies do not have a fine grasp on the chemicals present in their product components and are thus exposing themselves to major risks. For example, many manufacturers are unaware that the simple fact that 15 ...
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SCOEL Discusses Nanomaterials during March Meeting
The European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) met on March 7-9, 2016. The meeting minutes include the following summary regarding SCOEL’s discussion of nanomaterials: Several chemical agents proposed or envisaged to be addressed by SCOEL do concern or also concern the form as nanomaterial. SCOEL identified a group of scientists to ...
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Companies Appeal ECHA’s Requests for Information Concerning Nanoforms
On July 16, 2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced the following appeals in which the keywords include nanoforms: J.M. Huber Finland Oy, Case A-011-2015; RHODIA OPERATIONS SAS, Case A-010-2015; IQESIL SA, Case A-009-2015; and Evonik Degussa GmbH, Case A-008-2015. The cases all concern silicic acid, aluminum sodium salt. The contested decisions were adopted December 17, ...
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Don’t Let REACH Become a Stretch
CHEMICAL REGULATION IN THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) will change radically when the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) Program is implemented. The program will mandate registration of chemicals that are manufactured or imported into the EU in quantities exceeding 1 metric ton, and will require further evaluation of those that surpass 100 metric tons. Certain “high concern” ...
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Companies Appeal ECHA’s Decision on Silicon Dioxide
On August 19, 2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced appeals of its March 11, 2015, decision on substance evaluation for silicon dioxide. Case A-015-2015 was filed by Evonik Degussa GmbH and 34 others, while Case A-014-2015 was filed by Grace GmbH & Co. KG. The appellants in Case A-015-2015 challenge ECHA’s decision to include silicon dioxide on the Community Rolling ...
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Benzene health issues: Occupational Exposure Limits
Occupational Exposure Limits The table below shows the existing OELs indicated as an 8-hour time TWA and 15-minute STEL (where stated) for selected EU member states and agencies in the USA. Recognising the specific concerns over benzene, the EU has turned to the European Chemicals agency (ECHA) to “review and evaluate the information already available and assess the most recent ...
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ECHA Announces New Approach on Hazard Assessment for Nanoforms
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on March 23, 2016, a new publication co-authored with the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Joint Research Center (JRC) that illustrates how to use data for different nanoforms within the same substance registration. According to ECHA, this approach “will form a cornerstone in the future guidance ...
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ECHA Board of Appeal Annuls Four Decisions Requesting Substance Identity Information on a Nano Structured Substance
In cases A-008-2015, A-009-2015, A-010-2015, and A-011-2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Board of Appeal examined appeals against compliance check decisions made by ECHA requesting further substance identity information from four registrants of a “nano structured” substance. As reported in our July 29, 2015, blog item, ECHA adopted the contested decisions on December 17, ...
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A Product is a sum of its parts
Summary On September 10,2015, The Court of Justice of the European Union (GEU) clarified a longstanding conflict with respect to the definition of "complex articles" or "once an article, always an article." This preliminary ruling' has a significant impact to the entire supply chain as it now requires responsible parties to disseminate the chemical content in their products to a much deeper ...
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Transformation/dissolution examination of antimony and antimony compounds, with speciation of the T/D solutions
Speciation is held to be a key factor in controlling the ecotoxicity of metals in solution. Using the UN Transformation/Dissolution Protocol (T/DP) for Metals and Sparingly Soluble Metal Compounds, we have examined the T/D characteristics in terms of the concentrations of total dissolved Sb at pH 6 and 8.5 in 1, 10 and 100 mg/L loadings over seven days as well as the concentrations of Sb(III) and ...
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Global Summit on Regulatory Science Will Focus on Nanotechnology Standards and Applications
The 2016 Global Summit on Regulatory Science (GSRS) will be held September 7-9, 2016, in Bethesda, Maryland. Each GSRS meeting focuses on an area of regulatory science that would benefit from discussions aimed at identifying future research directions, and this GSRS meeting will focus on nanotechnology standards and applications, building on an October 11, 2015, GSRS workshop. The 2015 workshop ...
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European chemicals agency dossier submissions as an experimental data source: refinement of a fish toxicity model for predicting acute LC50 values
As a result of the stringent data requirements of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, a vast amount of ecotoxicological data has become available through the dissemination portal of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). As of April 2014, the database contained 12 439 unique substances from 47 909 dossiers. This vast database could be used ...
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ECHA Issues Article 95 Biocide Suppliers List
On September 2, 2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) issued an updated list of biocide suppliers as required under Article 95 of the Biocidal Product Regulation (BPR). Although prior versions of the list were released previously, this list has current legal effect since Article 95 provides that, as of September 1, 2015, a biocidal product cannot be made available in European Union (EU) ...
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ECHA Confirms Four SVHCs for January Candidate List, Proposes Two Others
The Member State Committee (MSC) of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has agreed on four Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) to be included in the January 2017 Candidate List update. To learn more about what constitutes an article under REACH, click here to download the whitepaper REACH: Applying the New Article Interpretation. These substances, and why they were proposed, are: ...
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EU Plans to Restrict DecaBDE
One year after the last expansion of the list of Persistent Organic a first indication on a possible restriction of Bis(pentabromophenyl)ether (DecaBDE) under REACH Annex XVII or POPs Regulation (proposed by Norway in May 2013) was published on the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) website on August 1, 2013 (3). The group of polybrominated diphenylethers has a long history of restriction in the ...
By SGS
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Four New SVHCs in Latest REACH Compliance Update
The first of two biannual updates to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation was issued on January 17, expanding the Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs) with four new substances. Companies manufacturing, importing, or distributing in the EU have a duty to communicate the presence of any listed SVHC above the 0.1 percent ...
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3E Company Adds GHS Enhancements to SDS Authoring Platform
Environmental health and safety compliance and information management services provider 3E Company has released MSDgen 6.54, the latest version of its safety data sheet (SDS) authoring system. With this latest release, customers have access to new features and regulatory updates, including expanded regulatory information to support compliance with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized ...
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Managing hazardous substances within the workplace
Dangerous substances, in liquid, gas or solid form that pose a risk to workers’ health or safety can be found in nearly all workplaces. According to the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (EU-OSHA)1, 15% of workers across the European Union (EU) have to handle dangerous substances as part of their job, and another 15% report breathing in smoke, fumes, powder or dust at work which ...
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3rd Recommendation for REACH Authorization List
The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) continues with its efforts to tighten restrictions on using Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). The ECHA officially recommended on December 20, 2011 a further 13 SVHC as candidates for the Authorization List (Annex XIV) of the REACH Regulation (EC No. 1907/2006) to the European Commission. This third set of recommendations could expand Annex XIV to 27 ...
By SGS
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