News

Trade associations representing the cleaning products sector have written to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier to call for any Brexit outcome that creates regulatory divergence between the trade bloc and the UK to be avoided. In a letter dated 30 March, international soap and detergents...

A European Commission proposal for an implementing Regulation to set a 'cut-off date' for REACH phase-in substances could prompt legal challenges, according to a prominent Brussels-based lawyer. Phase-in substances are those which already exist on the European market and are listed in the European Inventory of...

Echa will send draft decisions on information requests for 15 substances to registrants for comment in June rather than April. This is to allow them to finalise preparations for the REACH 2018 submission deadline of 31 May, the agency says. It expects to liaise with...

An amendment to K-REACH aimed at making the reduction of vertebrate animal testing central to the legislation, has passed South Korea's National Assembly. The amendment, put forward last year, will be incorporated into the revised version of K-REACH when it enters into force 1 January...

Information released by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) shows how exposure to toxic chemicals in the home and the working environment continues apace. And the numbers are shocking. Research by ECHA showed levels of restricted phthalates above those permitted in the EU in 20% of inspected...

The inspections in EU and EEA Member States will check whether the classification and labelling of a mixture corresponds to the information presented in the safety data sheet for the mixture. The controls began in January 2018 under the enforcement project REACH-EN-FORCE-6 (REF-6). Altogether, 31 European...

The last deadline is looming and there are serious consequences to not meeting it by 31 May At the start of the year, Echa was still expecting about 25,000 unique substances covered by some 60,000 registrations, to be submitted by the last REACH deadline of 31...

ECHA has selected 236 substances for further scrutiny by the Member State competent authorities in its annual screening exercise. The competent authorities will carry out a manual examination of dossiers they prioritise to decide whether regulatory action is needed. If a company has registered one...

The REACH Directors' Contact Group (DCG) has rejected a proposal by Echa to grant small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) conditional free access to REACH data and joint submissions for the May 2018 registration deadline. The DCG is an informal group of directors from the European Commission,...

The Member State Committee (MSC) supported the German proposal to additionally identify bisphenol A (BPA) as a substance of very high concern (SVHC) because of its endocrine disrupting properties which cause probable serious effects to the environment. Bisphenol A is already listed in the Candidate...