Producers Sprint to Follow new SVCH Rules
European chemical producers are sprinting to be ready to comply with new reporting rules for Substances of Very High Concern (SVCH) under an expansion of the EU’s REACH legislation due to take effect next year.
From Jan. 5, 2021, all products currently requiring declaration as a SVHC must be registered in the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) new SCIP database, which has been established under the Waste Framework Directive (WFD). Additionally, from 2021 onward, companies will be have to update their REACH dossiers within a tighter timeframe generally.
The European Commission’s SVCH push is aimed at ensuring more transparency for products containing hazardous chemicals throughout their entire lifecycle. ECHA, the Helsinki, Finland-based EU agency that administers REACH, said last year that a “large majority” of substances of very high concern may be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction.
Moreover, the chemicals agency said, many products made by the plastics industry, including bis (2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, or DEHP), that are used in injection molding, as flame retardants for automobile seat upholstery or in housing for electrical appliances, most likely have several hazardous properties.
For all products, the registration procedure will be the same. Companies will have to provide general information about the manufacturer and the product, such as a code. The SVHC, along with the concentration range (above 0.1% weight by weight) of an article or product must also be disclosed, along with any safety information potentially needed by workers, consumers or waste treatment companies.
To help companies meet the target date, despite the fact that the SCIP database will not be ready for use before until October this year, ECHA has established a harmonized IUCLID-format prototype for preparing SCIP notifications and has published details on its dedicated SCIP format web page. The software, it says, can call up data that is already registered in REACH dossiers, thus making it easier to comply.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
