Up to now, 59 chemical producers have signed up for the European Chemical Industry Council’s (CEFIC) Action Plan to re-evaluate their chemical safety data, the producers’ association said this week.

CEFIC launched the voluntary industry-wide initiative at the end of June to help its members proactively and systematically review and improve data in previously submitted REACh registration dossiers.

The multi-annual plan provides a framework for REACh registrants to re-evaluate the safety data stepwise, outlining the timeline, roles and responsibilities, substance prioritization criteria and critical issues, as well as explaining how progress will be reported.

The review is flanked by a cooperation agreement between CEFIC and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the Helsinki-based EU authority that administrates REACh.  The implementation of the agreement will be supported and guided by a steering committee comprised of the representatives of the two organizations.

Sylvie Lemoine, CEFIC’s executive director Product Stewardship, said the industry association is working with its members to encourage more companies to join the action plan and benefit from cooperation with ECHA to bring all registration data on chemicals in line with the most recent guidelines.

As a next step, Lemoine said, CEFIC and ECHA will launch a pilot project to review and improve selected dossiers from a small set of companies who volunteered to participate.

Among other things, she noted, the purpose of this pilot project is to develop case studies and best practices for the use of alternative testing methods of chemicals in order to avoid animal tests, where possible.

“This is a rapidly developing field of research, and companies would appreciate guidance to make sure they use the most recent methodologies in line with ECHA’s expectations,” Lemoine added.

By cooperating with each other, ECHA and CEFIC hope to disprove suggestions that chemical companies and authorities are out of step with their pledge to protect the environment, as charged by environmental NGOs in May.