The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has opened to comment its recommendation that 11 new substances be placed on the Authorization List under REACh. A substance placed on the list can only be brought onto the market or used after a given date unless an authorization is granted for a specific use.

Following the comment period – which in this case extends until Feb. 17, 2016 – and consultation with the Member State Committee, the recommendation will be remanded to the EU Commission for a final decision.

Substances proposed by ECHA for its seventh listing include the PVC plasticisers dihexyl phthalate, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, dihexyl ester, branched and linear, along with HHPA and MHHPA, used as hardeners for epoxy resins. Trixylyl phosphate (used in lubricants, hydraulic fluids and plastics production) is also recommended for the list as well as sodium perborate, perboric acid, sodium salt and sodium peroxometaborate (used in detergents and bleaching products).

Additionally, four lead compounds, including orange lead (lead tetroxide), lead monoxide (lead oxide), tetralead trioxide sulphate and pentalead tetraoxide sulphate (used in batteries, rubber production and adsorbents) are among the authorization proposals. The four were included in ECHA’s draft recommendation of July 2014 but were not included in the final recommendation sent to the Commission in July 2015.