REACH & CLP Compliance Services

Stewardship Solutions can help

• define lowest-cost REACH & CLP strategies;
• defend against unfair practices;
• undertake all technical aspects;
• support organisations throughout the world

The international community has been trying to develop a more comprehensive approach to chemicals management, and one outcome is the policy framework for international action on chemicals, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), managed under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). SAICM has as its stated overall objective, agreed at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, âœthe achievement of the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment. A global plan of action sets out proposed work areas and activities for implementation.

We are experienced in regulatory and voluntary compliance programmes around the world.

The chemicals legislation of EU member states is largely governed directly (as regulations) or indirectly (as directives) by over-arching EU laws. Several features underpin the application of most EU chemicals legislation:

Chemical inventories

The EU has created inventories, and associated reporting requirements, so that governmental authorities can obtain necessary information about the chemicals that are being manufactured in, and imported into, EU member states. The main inventories include the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances (EINECS), the European List of Notified Chemical Substances (ELINCS) and the No-longer Polymers (NLP) List.

Registration and evaluation

Until REACH came into force, only substances placed on the EU market, and listed on ELINCS, were subject to registration and subsequent evaluation by national authorities.

Priority chemicals/restrictions on use

EU regulators have developed lists of priority chemicals with the aim of reducing or eliminating them from commercial products, industrial releases and waste streams, by means of pollution prevention, waste minimisation and recycling and reuse. Other types of priority chemicals which are closely monitored include those which may be intermediates or components for illegal narcotics, chemical weapons or military equipment.

Hazard communications

The provision of safety data sheets and labelling of products is mandatory when substances classified as hazardous are manufactured or imported in the EU, and supplied to downstream users. The Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP) Regulation 1272/2008 incorporates chemical classification criteria and labelling rules agreed under the United Nations (UN) Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) scheme. It is based on the principle that the same hazards should be described and labelled in the same way around the world.