Helsinki, 2 September 2009
The European Chemicals Agency has today published on its website a public consultation on the proposal to harmonise the classification and labelling of three chemical substances. Comments are welcome on the proposal within the next 45 days. All comments will be taken into account in the subsequent decision-making process.
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Helsinki, 1 September 2009
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published on its website proposals to identify chemicals as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). Interested parties are welcome to comment on these 15 substances within the next 45 days. The comments will be taken into account when deciding whether the substances will be added to the Candidate List from which substances are selected for authorisation.
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Helsinki, 31 August 2009
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has been made aware that a number of nominated Lead Registrants are holding back from notifying themselves to ECHA as they have concerns about the legal implications of such action. Consequently, they are not able to benefit from the dedicated special service for Lead Registrants that is being provided by ECHA.
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Helsinki, 28 August 2009
A new study has overestimated the impact of EU legislation on animal testing by six times. The real figures are more likely to be the ones assessed and published when the new chemicals legislation (REACH) was prepared and negotiated.
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Helsinki, 28 August 2009
Introductory Guidance on the CLP Regulation and Guidance on the Application of the CLP Criteria have been published on the ECHA website. They provide a comprehensive guidance to companies having obligations to meet under this legislation which entered into force on 20 January 2009.
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Helsinki, 10 August 2009
An important new way to avoid unnecessary animal testing has been put into operation today.
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is calling for health effects information on the reproductive toxicity of a specific chemical substance by 24 September 2009 (http://echa.europa.eu/consultations/test_proposals/test_prop_cons_en.asp). This is the first time that this type of public consultation - foreseen by the REACH Regulation - is made, and ECHA expects to make many such calls about different substances over the coming years.
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Helsinki, 30 July 2009
The European Chemicals Agency does not accredit or endorse companies providing advice or hands-on support to others on regulatory compliance. No companies can claim that they have been accredited by ECHA.
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Helsinki, 14 July 2009
ECHA is currently sending out invitations to Lead Registrants to participate in a dedicated "Lead Registrant Workshop" to be held on 11 September in Brussels. This workshop is specifically aimed at promoting means that will assist Lead Registrants in their SIEF activities. Topics to be discussed in the workshop will cover best practices in establishing and managing SIEFs, the preparation of registration dossiers and specific feedback on information requirements. Lead Registrants are encouraged to inform ECHA of their nomination in order to benefit from this supporting activity.
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Helsinki, 14 July 2009
Over the past few weeks, enquirers have frequently alerted ECHA to market behaviour of companies advertising REACH related services and/or actively hampering SIEF formation. ECHA was asked to clarify whether this behaviour may possibly constitute a violation of the terms and conditions of REACH-IT or a breach of obligations imposed by the REACH Regulation.
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Helsinki, 14 July 2009
ECHA has published new information on the risks and hazards of some chemical substances on its website. The substances concerned are “handovers” from the previous legislation (Regulation (EEC) No. 793/93) which were prioritised due to being produced in large quantities or having possible persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic properties.
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Helsinki, 6 July 2009
The Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) last Friday agreed not to support a proposal for EU-wide harmonised classification and labelling of diantimony trioxide as a skin irritant. The Agency will now submit this opinion to the European Commission for their decision.
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Helsinki, 24 June 2009
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has launched a new series of shortened versions of the REACH Guidance Documents and Fact Sheet on the inclusion of substances in the List of Substances Subject to Authorisation
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Helsinki, 16 June 2009
ECHA has published on its website the second public consultation on a proposal to harmonise the classification and labelling of four chemical substances. Comments are welcome on the proposal within the next 45 days. All comments will be taken into account in the subsequent decision-making process.
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Helsinki, 9 June 2009
The web pages containing the REACH Guidance Documents have been re-structured. The page, which can be found in the Guidance section of the ECHA website, now consists of four sub-sections: Guidance Documents, Guidance in a nutshell, Fact Sheets, and Consultation Procedure.
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Helsinki, 2 June 2009
The European Chemicals Agency recommends that seven chemical substances of very high concern should not be used without specific authorisation. Three of the recommended substances are classified as toxic to reproduction, one as carcinogenic and three fulfil the criteria for being persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB). They are all used in products to which consumers and workers are exposed.
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Helsinki, 29 May 2009
Over 570 representatives of stakeholders from 33 countries (ranging from the EU Member States to India, Korea and the USA) participated in the European Chemicals Agency's (ECHA) second Stakeholders' Day. Over 300 were present at the Conference Centre in Helsinki and a further 270 joined in via webstream. The participants discussed the urgent need for companies to work together and share data in order to prepare joint dossiers for the registration of each chemical substance.
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Helsinki, 26 May 2009
The Member State Committee of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) adopted an opinion sharing the ECHA Secretariat’s view that seven substances of very high concern should be included in the so-called Authorisation List. The opinion was adopted by consensus. The Agency will finalise its recommendation on these substances, taking into account the Opinion of the Member State Committee, and submit it to the European Commission by 1 June 2009.
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Helsinki, 30 April 2009
REACH-EN-FORCE-1, a joint REACH enforcement project, has started across Europe. National inspectors are checking pre-registrations, registrations and – where applicable – the provisions for Safety Data Sheets. The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement, meeting for the fourth time this week in Helsinki, reviewed the start of the project and agreed on the further steps.
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Helsinki, 24 April 2009
ECHA has published a REACH Fact Sheet providing registrants top tips on how to get started in SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Fora). SIEFs have a critical role within REACH and ECHA wants to do what it can to try to ensure that they succeed in sharing and assessing data as well as preparing the common parts of the registration. At the same time, the Agency would like to remind companies that SIEFS are independent – they are not "owned" by ECHA.
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Helsinki, 17 April 2009
ECHA has updated REACH-IT by adding an online inquiry submission functionality and a functionality to change legal entity names in the system. Documentation is also published to assist companies with the online inquiry and the change in legal entity name. In addition, REACH-IT can now be accessed by Member States Competent Authorities that fulfill ECHA’s standard security requirements. In addition, ECHA has published an Industry User Manual outlining the checks that the Agency makes immediately after a dossier has been received.
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Helsinki, 8 April 2009
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) organised a workshop to discuss the implementation of the Authorisation process under REACH on 21 – 22 January 2009. It was attended by representatives of the Agency, EU Member States and the European Commission.
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Helsinki, 6 April 2009
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) inaugurated its new conference centre on Friday 3 April. In the event, the European Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström called for a new high level UN panel to tackle the risks from chemicals.
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Helsinki, 27 March 2009
An updated version of the List of Pre-registered Substances was published today on the ECHA website. It contains around 143,000 substances which were pre-registered by 65,000 companies between 1 June and 1 December 2008. ECHA does not expect all of these substances to be registered.
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Helsinki, 26 March 2009
A new page on socio-economic analysis is now available on the ECHA website. It introduces the role of the socio-economic analysis in the restriction and authorisation procedures and other legislative actions on chemical substances under REACH.
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Helsinki, 25 March 2009
On 27 May 2009, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will hold its second Stakeholders' Day at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, Finland. Up to 500 participants worldwide from industry, national authorities and interest groups will attend. Participation is free of charge. The proceedings can also be followed over the Internet via web streaming. The event will precede the Helsinki Chemicals Forum which will take place on 28 and 29 May 2009, in the same venue.
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Helsinki, 5 March 2009
The conference aims to inform authorities, industry and other stakeholders about the new provisions for classification, labelling and packaging in the EU, placing them in the global context of GHS. It will explain the main features of the new legislation, focusing on practical aspects. It will provide up-to-date information on the CLP guidance documents and tools.
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Helsinki, 23 Febuary 2009
ECHA has today published on its website the first public consultation on a proposal to harmonise the classification and labelling of two chemical substances. Comments are welcome on the proposal within the next 45 days. All comments will be taken into account in the subsequent decision-making process.
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Helsinki, 13 Febuary 2009
Currently the main REACH obligation for companies which pre-registered substances last year is to form SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Forums). These should be operational as soon as possible, particularly in those cases where companies need to submit their registrations to ECHA before 1 December 2010.
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Helsinki, 11 Febuary 2009
Over the coming weekend, ECHA will upgrade REACH-IT to address performance issues related to the searching and viewing of pre-registrations & pre-SIEFs, and the pre-SIEF XML download. REACH-IT is scheduled to be off line from 3pm Friday 13 February until 2pm Monday 16 February. Any change to this schedule will be announced on the ECHA website under REACH-IT/Portal.
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Helsinki, 4 Febuary 2009
The IUCLID 5 End User Manual has been translated into 21 EU languages. The Manual helps users to work with the software in a company environment and serves as a complete reference document for IUCLID functionalities and for preparing dossiers to be submitted to ECHA.
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Helsinki, 26 January 2009
Now available for downloading, the IUCLID 5 Query plug-in extends the ways in which data can be searched in a user’s IUCLID 5 database and also provides easy access to administrative and scientific data.
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Helsinki, 26 January 2009
ECHA has made improvements to REACH-IT’s searching and messaging modules to increase the availability and stability of the system thus allowing companies to form SIEFs. The organization is currently monitoring the impact of these changes as it continues to implement additional improvements to further enhance the performance of REACH-IT.
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Helsinki, 20 January 2009
As scheduled, the new REACH-IT release went online on the 5th of January and now companies must submit all their dossiers, including “late pre-registrations”, to ECHA via REACH-IT. Companies are asked to remain patient as the REACH-IT system is still receiving high levels of use leading to slow access to the pre-SIEFs and slower dossier submission. As such, ECHA is progressively working on solutions to improve system performance.
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Helsinki, 19 January 2009
An upgrade (5.1) is now available for the standalone and the distributed versions of IUCLID 5. The upgrade can be downloaded free of charge from the 'Get IUCLID 5' section of the IUCLID 5 website.
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Helsinki, 14 January 2009
ECHA launched today a public consultation on the first draft recommendation of substances to be included in the list of substances subject to authorisation (Annex XIV or Authorisation List). Interested parties can submit comments by using the relevant web forms on the ECHA website until 14 April 2009.
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