ECHA: More CLH Candidates Than Expected – Bottlenecks in Risk Management Feared

Ever since substance groups instead of individual substances have been undergoing evaluation, the number of substances that require harmonized classification and labeling (CLH) has risen significantly. Just last year some 1,900 substances were involved – three times as many as in the year before. Of those, 1,650 are registered under REACH, of which 700 are in tonnage bands >100 tons per year. That information is contained in the current Integrated Regulatory Strategy (IRS) Annual Report, published along with a press release by the ECHA on June 17.

Despite the practice of group evaluation, which evaluates substances based on their structural similarity, the ECHA did not expect such a rise in the number of CLH candidates. It seems that this unexpected extra effort can be traced to a few groups, such as salicylate esters and simple vanadium compounds, whose individual substances are generally to be classified in a harmonized manner.

Based on the full pipeline of CLH candidates, the ECHA estimates that some follow-up measures will be delayed, such as substance authorizations and other regulatory measures related to REACH. That’s why the authors of the report call upon companies to update their registrations speedily. A decision to regulate a substance or not is based on this information.

Ensure legal certainty in the handling of critical substances. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have to this topic at sales@kft.de.