The Lithuanian government approved the draft of a new chemicals law in mid-February. With this initiative, the country aims to harmonize its regulations on chemical substances and mixtures with the requirements of the applicable EU regulations (REACH, CLP, and POP). According to an advisor in the Lithuanian ministry, the new…
The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) of the European Parliament approved the EU Commission’s proposal for the Toy Safety Regulation in mid-February. It will replace Directive 2009/48/EC. The regulation will be passed by the new parliament after the elections in June of this year. Manufacturers and…
Since the end of January 2024, interested parties can use the ECHA CHEM database to view information on all REACH registrations. The ECHA has published a press release on the subject. The ECHA’s current substance database contains information on more than 360,000 chemicals. Companies submit substance data onto the platform…
The ECHA has added five substances of very high concern to the REACH candidate list. In the future, these will be assessed by ECHA regarding potential inclusion in the list of substances subject to authorization (Annex XIV, REACH Regulation). The five substances are: 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenol: It is toxic for reproduction and…
On December 22, EU member states adopted the new Ecodesign Regulation. In the future, only products that are recyclable and have properties such as durability and energy efficiency will be placed on the market. Among other things, the Regulation provides for the introduction of chemicals as a separate product category…
Turkey’s environment ministry has amended the KKDIK law and thus set new registration deadlines. The Ministry published the corresponding legal text in the Official Gazette on December 23 (in Turkish). With the amendment to the law, the Turkish government is granting companies exactly the same deadlines for substance registration that…
A Swedish study shows that the substitution of hazardous chemicals is progressing more slowly than expected. In the analysis published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, the authors compared criteria and processes that are decisive for the selection of a substitution candidate – for pesticides, biocides, and industrial chemicals. The…
The EU Commission wants to accelerate the assessment of chemicals according to the principle of “one substance – one assessment.” That’s why it published various draft regulations at the beginning of December, including a draft regulation for a common data platform. The EU thereby added another building block to the…
The restriction proposal for PFAS has resulted in a flood of around 5,600 comments. The ECHA must now review them by the end of September 2024. Because the planned restriction covers more than 10,000 PFAS, it affects many applications in a wide range of industries, including the electronics and semiconductor…
The ECHA is proposing swift restriction measures for PVC additives that augment plastic as plasticizers, heat stabilizers, and flame retardants. The EU Commission asked the agency to determine the environmental and health risks of PVC and its additives and published the results in a report at the end of November….