EU Inspects Safety Data Sheets

The EU wants to improve the safety of employees who deal with hazardous materials at their companies. That’s why the ECHA began an enforcement project (REACH-EN-FORCE Project 5) at the beginning of this year. As part of the initiative, inspectors in 28 EU countries will check the completeness and correctness of data in safety data sheets and exposure scenarios. The ECHA expects to present a final report in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The inspectors specifically want to determine to what extent the extended safety data sheets contain the information that the manufacturer’s chemical safety report requires. They also want to see if the exposure scenarios are implemented according to the health and safety regulations. The effort has two goals:

 To provide employees with information on the risks involved and to give them the correct safety information

To enable the inspectors to see how well information is pass on along the supply chain

One provision of Article 125 of REACH requires that member states regularly monitor proper implementation of the regulation. In Germany, for example, individual states are responsible for this task. The EU supports these activities across all countries and has established a Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement. The Forum consists of a network of various agencies that handle legal implementation of REACH, CLP, and PIC in EU countries, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland. Each country has a representative in the Forum. The representatives suggest projects, like the REACH-EN-FORCE 5 project, and then coordinate and evaluate the projects.

The creation of almost every country-specific version of safety data sheets has been one of our core competencies for many years. If you have any questions, please contact us at sds@kft.de.