The European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, held their 12th Stakeholders’ Day in Helsinki, Finland, on the 5th of April 2017. Hundreds of chemical and product stewardship experts from around Europe attended the event. Ecobio enjoyed its position once again as a next door neighbour to ECHA.

At the Stakeholders’ Day, the ECHA representatives strongly encouraged all companies to hurry up with their REACH Registrations, as the registration deadline of the 31st of May 2018 is approaching soon for substances manufactured in or imported into the EU.

The following summarizes some of the main aspects presented by ECHA at the Stakeholders’ Day:

REACH 2018 – Challenges for registrants

• Forming an unambiguous Substance Identity Profile and a boundary composition for other SIEF members takes time and effort
• Joint registrations: challenges with poor-quality data, unfairness in cost sharing, issues on confirming substance sameness within a SIEF
• Some substances still without a lead registrant or any registrant at all – what to do?
• Diverging hazard classifications between different manufacturers create confusion and uncertainty
• Getting information from customers and non-EU suppliers is tricky and time-consuming
• Using alternative methods to animal testing still difficult
• Test laboratories already fully-booked for toxicological and ecotoxicological tests

Good advice to registrants

• Get going now: creating a high-quality dossier with all the relevant information requirements fulfilled takes a lot of time.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises can perform REACH registrations by themselves. However, they should consider outside help, as the REACH Registrations require a lot of expertise from different fields of science, e.g. chemistry, toxicology and ecotoxicology.
• Get wise – use the tools supported by ECHA to create the dossier: CHESAR, IUCLID and REACH-IT.
• Use ready use maps created by industry associations where available – they help you in downstream communication and in identifying relevant downstream uses for your substance.
• Demand good-quality information, fairness and transparency within a SIEF.
• Communicate: up – and then down – the supply chain and within SIEFs.
• Invest in good-quality data – it´s your business card.

After the 2018 registration deadline

• Registration dossiers will be screened and evaluated by ECHA – companies should keep their dossiers up to date after the registration as well, instead of waiting for ECHA’s notification letter.
• ECHA aims at tackling all substances of concern – these might include your substances. A good advice is to follow ECHA’s news and newsletters.
• Information on all substances manufactured above 1 tonne per year in the EU will be freely available to all.

 

Ecobio’s experts are always happy to help with questions related to chemical legislation and the REACH Regulation. For advice or for more information, you can contact us at info@ecobio.fi or tel. 020 756 9450.

Ecobio Manager – Regulation Tracking and Chemical Management Service