Chemicals Coffee Time Monthly, May 2023

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the compilation from the May 2023 editions of Chemicals Coffee Time!

Good news – Annex VIII to CLP being removed from GB

Excellent news from Douglas Leech of the Chemical Business Association on the 12th of May 2023, as following his persistent lobbying, DHSC had just emailed him (and others) to announce that Annex VIII to CLP will be removed from UK law by the end of 2023 under the “bonfire of regulations” Retained EU Law provision.

Doug deserves full credit for this, as he has kept the topic “front of mind” for DHSC staff ever since this came to light.

Thanks also to Steven Marks of Airedale Group who discovered the news of the inadvertent retention of Annex VIII and passed it to us at TT Environmental Ltd, which we then broke publicly via our weekly email newsletter and LinkedIn.

Note that this revocation only applies to Poison Centre Notifications for GB, as NI will continue to follow the EU pattern of notifying via an IUCLID6 PCN file, although rather than uploading it to the Portal, it should continue to be emailed to NPIS as per their guidance here:  https://www.npis.org/Industrysubmit.html .

The DHSC email states “We therefore plan to revoke Annex VIII within GB CLP by the end of 2023 using powers within the Retained EU Law Bill. An announcement on all revocations of EU law under this Bill was made yesterday and we opted for this legislative option as it is the most efficient and timely route for the revocation of the Annex. The Department for Health and Social Care will provide a further update once the revocation process is complete. “

GB’s “Bonfire of Regulations” confirmed for 2023

There are two parts to this, firstly the UK Government altered its self-imposed (self-inflicted?) deadline on assessing retained EU legislation, so that the target of the end of 2023 has been lifted, see  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65546319 

This was clearly an impossible deadline when you consider just two pieces of retained legislation, UK-REACH and GB-CLP and their complexity. And the burden of this task has fallen most heavily on the team at DEFRA, who are dealing with 1671 pieces of legislation, which is exactly 1,000 more than the next most burdened department, Transport . Hopefully the extension of the deadline will help them deal with the workload.

Secondly, the list of regulations to be removed by the end of 2023 has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schedule-of-retained-eu-law .

Alison Potts notes that Annex VIII to CLP is included in the list of regulations to be removed, on line 206 under DHSC. However, we are aware that there are 3 pieces of legislation which brought Annex VIII into UK law, so it will be interesting to see if all three are removed.

For regulation nerds, the full list of EU retained law is on this dashboard: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/retained-eu-law-dashboard .

When an EU regulation applies

A GB colleague has been wrestling with an EU supplier who has a product which will be classified more severely under the 18th ATP to CLP than at present. As the product is sold back into the EU in a mixture, it’s essential our colleague uses the 18th ATP classification as soon as it becomes mandatory, yet the supplier has been advised by lawyers that there is an 18 month phase in period which starts on 1st December 2023, the date the regulations apply.

I need hardly remind regular readers that this is a complete misreading of the situation. There is a phase-in period for the 18th ATP to CLP, but it started on 23rd May 2022, the date the 18th ATP entered into force (20 days after the date of publication), and which ends on 1st December 2023, the date on which the regulations apply, that is the date by which everybody must comply. (To make things trickier, the 18th ATP originally applied from 23d November 2023, but this was amended to 1st December 2023 in a corrigendum).

We have produced an infographic on reading the dates of EU-CLP ATPs (also applicable to other EU regulations), which is available for email newsletter subscribers here:  https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/subscribers-only-infographic-on-when-eu-regulations-apply/ .

You have to be logged into the website to access it, and if you haven’t already got a log-in, you can sign up here:  https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/home/newsletter-sign-up/ 

ChemUK 2023 report

I was lucky enough to be invited to speak again at CHEMUKEXPO 2023, alongside Mick Goodwin of WSP, on Brexit divergence. Mick covered REACH registration divergence, and I looked at the practical impacts on the label and SDS, which is available here (open access):  https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/brexit-ongoing-impacts-on-the-label-and-sds/  .

The good news is that although the EU has diverged since Brexit Day with the publication of the 17th ATP to CLP (and 18th ATP to CLP, which is coming in later this year), the UK has now notified the WTO (https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2023/T BT/GBR/23_8939_00_e.pdf) that many of these changes will in fact be adopted into GB-CLP. The infographic at the top of this newsletter gives an overview of the situation (although the numbers may be slightly incorrect, other people have found 98 differences, not 99, and I did pull these figures together under a deadline).

There are at least 14 substances where two SDSs will be required, and that’s before the upcoming 19th and 20th ATP from the EU.

There is also practical advice on when you can use an EU-format dual SDS for both EU/NI and GB in my ChemUK presentation.

Pressure on UK Government to rethink UK-REACH

It seems that there is growing concern over the estimated £2 billion cost of reregistering all 22000-ish chemical substances within UK-REACH, as per this article in the Financial Times, UK failure to create post-Brexit chemical regulations risks ‘irreparable damage’ – https://www.ft.com/content/2d58ee8e-ee7d-4a05-be86-fab1c5665d74

Thanks to Aaron Mcloughlin of FleishmanHillard Hillard for highlighting this on LinkedIn.

Many UK-REACH problems were foreseeable

Following a meeting at ChemUK 2023, DEFRA staff asked me to send them through the Chemical Regulations Self Help Group’s 2016 position paper on UK-REACH. This was submitted to The Future of Chemicals Regulation After the EU Referendum Enquiry back in late 2016 (run by the Environmental Audit Committee).

The full Enquiry is here:  https://committees.parliament.uk/work/2621/the-future-of-chemicals-regulation-after-the-eu-referendum-inquiry/publications/  and the CRSHG’s position paper is here:  https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/76859/pdf/ .

What is interesting is how many of the topics which we perceived as “pain points” are still valid.

If you are interested in the work of the Chemical Regulations Self Help Group, there is more information here: https://www.chemselfhelp.co.uk/ .

Infographic of the month

A summary of chemotherapy classes: Cancer chemotherapy infographic.pdf

(Although comments on LinkedIn indicate that it doesn’t include every chemotherapy, see  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7057795788139061248  )

The Weekend Recipe

It’s tricky to know what to cook when the weather is changing from warm to cool and back again, so I got out a favourite recipe from Delia Smith, which is sausages in cider. Her original recipe (here:  https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/bangers-braised-in-cider ) is a bit complicated for everyday cooking, as it uses button onions (also known as pickling onions) or small shallots, which are a bit of a faff to peel, and it also involves frying apple slices as a decoration.

My version is a bit more suitable for “everyday”, although if we have company I may revert to Delia’s fancier original.

Ingredients

• 1lb good quality pork sausages
• 4 to 6 oz (one medium) chopped onion (or red onion – use what you have in the house)
• about 1/2lb streaky bacon, with the rind off (fatty if you can get it; smoked or unsmoked)
• a very small piece of lard, or bacon fat you have kept from frying bacon previously
• optional – a couple of cox’s orange pippin apples or similar (braeburn etc), peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
• a bottle of cider – my preference is Henry Weston’s vintage cider
• a bay leaf
• a clove of garlic
• thyme, a rounded teaspoon of fresh (if you have it), or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• to thicken the sauce, either 1 tablespoon of plain flour, or some slaked cornflour

Method

Set your oven to Gas Mark 2. Take a small piece of lard (or reserved bacon fat) and fry the bacon slowly over a low heat to release the fat. You may need to turn the heat up once most of the fat is released to brown the bacon. Remove from the pan and cut into small pieces, and place in an oven-proof dish or casserole with the bay leaf, the thyme and the garlic (crush this, or leave whole). In the bacon fat, fry off the sausages at a medium temperature to brown them, but not cook fully, and lift them out into the oven proof dish. Now fry the onions off in the residual bacon fat until brown, and, if you’re adding apple, put it in to cook through slightly once the onions have cooked. You can either thicken the sauce at this point by sprinkling a tablespoon of plain flour over the onions and stirring well before you add the cider; or thicken it at the end using a little slaked cornflour. Next, add in about 1/2 pint of the cider and bring to the boil. The bacon in the dish means you do not need salt, but you can add some black paper if you like. Pour the whole lot carefully into your dish If the cider doesn’t cover the sausages and onions, feel free to add some more! (Top tip – if your ovenproof dish is also suitable for the stove top, put it on the stove and bring the contents to the boil before putting in the oven). Cook the sausages in cider for about an hour (if you brought the contents to the boil) or an hour and a half. Then remove the casserole lid for the last half hour of cooking. Serve with potato mash, or rice.

Notes – The quality of the dish depends on both the sausages – use the best, meatiest ones you can get hold of – and the cider (and good quality dry cure bacon helps too). Do not skip any of the flavourings (bacon, herbs, garlic) as it won’t taste quite the same – these are all essential to the flavour. I don’t think it’s suitable for “veganising”, as I suspect vegan sausages wouldn’t stand up to the lengthy cooking (although feel free to experiment and let me know if it does work!). The recipe is intrinsically lactose free, and if you thicken the sauce at the end using slaked cornflour, it is also gluten free. This recipe freezes well, and if you plan to freeze it, I wouldn’t bother thickening the sauce before freezing, but you can always do that when you reheat it after it’s thawed out.

Reasons to be Cheerful

During May, we had some more Coronation Reasons to be Cheerful, and I also discovered a series from the USA called “It’s a Southern Thing”, with some universally-applicable themes

• 5th May: a short clip of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in colour:
• 12th May: a summary of King Charles III’s coronation (BBC highlights in 4 minutes):  The Coronation Ceremony in 4 Minutes – BBC 
• 19th May: It’s a Southern Thing, breaking the Potluck rules:  How to Lose Friends in the South  .
• 26th May: It’s a Southern Thing, visiting Granny: When You Spend the Night at Grandma’s House 

And finally, a serious debate on whether peanut butter is a liquid or solid for air travel somehow morphed into a discussion on whether cats are, in fact, liquid:

Alan Ritchie of WSP sent through these examples:

Many thanks for reading this LinkedIn newsletter, and many thanks to everyone who has contributed. If you have anything you’d like to share, please email me or send a DM, and I’ll do my best to include it in the next newsletter.

It would be great if you’d like to subscribe to this newsletter, or even our weekly email one https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/home/news… (which includes access to the email archive).

Look forward to chatting to you in late June or early July.

Kind regards,

Janet

Janet Greenwood, TT Environmental Ltd