Titanium Dioxide update: European Commission Standing Firm
This is an update on the article of 22nd July 2019, which you can read here. The story so far…. Titanium Dioxide is currently considered a non-hazardous chemical, which is used in a multitude of ways, from cosmetics and sunscreens through to the paint on a white car or van. The European Commission has proposed that it should be […]
Dinty the DDT Chimp Part 2: how hazardous is he?
Last week I shared a picture and article on Dint-ty, the DDT chimp, and asked the question whether I was behaving irrationally when I felt a shudder to even think about DDT, which is still a very useful insecticide against malarial mosquitoes. So how hazardous would Dint-ty have been when he was new, and would he have needed […]
Dint-ty the DDT Chimp
I found this handsome little chap in a vintage sale at Saltaire a few weeks ago. He caught my eye, not just because of the use of DDT in the home, but also because one of my clients rents the old Cox’s chemical site in Telford, although Dint-ty was made in Middlesex. The stall holder […]
The ECHA website is like a library
The ECHA website is an awesome repository of chemical data, but a lot of people don’t seem to understand that ECHA is a library, not an encyclopaedia. What I mean by that is ECHA don’t write most of the chemical information, they simply store it and allow people to search it. They don’t perform the […]
SVHCs and the Magic Chemicals Tree
This post follows on from the one last week about the four new SVHCs, which discussed technical compliance with the substances holding SVHC designation. Last week we covered these facts about SVHCs (Substances of Very High Concern): This is a designation brought in under REACH Some SVHCs are Authorised, that is requiring an extra permission […]
Four new substances on the Candidate List, July 2019
You may have seen that ECHA has recently identified four new SVHCs (Substances of Very High Concern), https://echa.europa.eu/-/four-new-substances-added-to-the-candidate-list . We can look at this in two ways: from the technical point of view of the duties it places on companies making or importing these substances; and from the political point of view, to consider why we have […]
Watch out – “Lisbonisation” will affect some CLP Classifications
Here we are, working away at classifying, labelling, packaging and compiling Safety Data Sheets, thinking that we’re on top of how things work at ECHA, and even if Brexit does happen, it’s going to be pretty much business as usual. Or so we think….but are you aware that the Lisbon Treaty is going to affect […]
The Titanium Dioxide proposed carcinogen classification
You may wonder why I’m writing about an individual Harmonised Classification for Titanium Dioxide which probably isn’t something you use or handle at work, although you probably do use it in your personal life in a multitude of ways, from cosmetics and sunscreens through to the paint on a white car or van. The reason […]
Mixture Safety Data Sheet problems
I don’t know about you, but we occasionally receive Safety Data Sheets which contain the same substance included twice. These are often for fragrances, which contain multiple component substances. It’s easy to see how this can happen, because the supplier has mixed two separate fragrances together to make a new fragrance, and simply placed the […]
What BREXIT means for CLP-GHS in the UK
Today, I want to go through the potential practical outcomes for CLP-GHS if the UK does, or doesn’t go through Brexit. There are too many people going on about politics of the situation. At the moment, Brexit, which really means the independent sovereign UK, is like a family jigsaw at Christmas: everyone’s squabbling, half the pieces […]