Thinking the unthinkable about REACH and Biocides
I hope this finds you well amongst this global uncertainty. The word “unprecedented” is often used to describe the situation we all find ourselves in, and I think it genuinely is. Even in wartime, during both World Wars, we did not have so many businesses closed and so many civilians effectively under house arrest. Among […]
Why having a variety of biocides available matters to human health
Well, what a week it’s been since my last CLP email, which was on Coronavirus and the chemical industry’s response. We have been on Lockdown here in the UK since last Monday night, and India followed suit on Tuesday evening. Most of the EU was already on Lockdown, and my American cousins tell me that the […]
Coronavirus and the chemical industry’s response
After my article last week explaining how the EU’s chemical regulations are hampering industry’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, the situation has altered very quickly in the UK, EU and other parts of the world, so I thought I’d bring you up to date with the situation, as far as I am aware. The story […]
How chemical regulations are hampering the EU’s Coronavirus response
This is probably going to be a controversial article, but I feel that someone has to point out what we have been discussing in the chemical industry ever since the implications of REACH became clear. Although REACH has improved Safety Data Sheet and labelling information significantly through the publication of the REACH dossiers, it has […]
The “Competent Person” in the EU and UK for CLP-GHS
Last week, we looked at the “Competent Person” definition under GHS, https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/the-competent-person-under-ghs/ , and came to these conclusions: Competence isn’t defined under GHS, so we used the dictionary definition, which is “the ability to do something successfully or efficiently“ there isn’t really a proper definition of “Competent Person” yet and it may take decades to […]
The “Competent Person” under GHS
You may be aware that GHS and CLP both require Safety Data Sheets to be compiled by a “competent person”. But it’s not clear what this actually means. As GHS has been based on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (TDG), it is likely that this requirement has come out of that standard. Under TDG, there […]
14th ATP to CLP published
The 14th ATP to CLP has finally been published, here, despite several efforts in the European Parliament to remove the controversial classification of Titanium Dioxide as a suspected carcinogen, which I have written about previously here and here. If you have been following this debate, you will be aware that the grounds for classifying Titanium […]
Is industry really classifying and labelling hazardous mixtures incorrectly 44% of the time?
You may have seen ECHA’s newsletter on 17th December 2019, with the worrying headline “44% of hazardous mixtures are not compliant with classification and labelling obligations” (see here). You can imagine consumers going about thinking that its unsafe to use nearly half of their household chemicals, although luckily this piece of information has not hit the […]
11 New Authorisations, February 2020
It looks like ECHA are going to be really busy in their new home. The European Commission, not content with bringing in 4 new SVHCs in January, have now moved 11 existing SVHCs into full Authorisation. These are the first new Authorisations since 2017, so it’s rather like buses – you wait for ages, and […]
SVHC and WEL updates, January 2020
No sooner have we got into 2020, when first ECHA publish four new SVHCs, see here, and then the HSE here in the UK issue an updated version of EH40: Workplace Exposure Limits, which includes some significant changes to workplace exposure limits in the UK. In fact, I feel a bit like the lady in […]