After much speculation, the European Commission has adopted a delegated act to amend Annex VIII of CLP 1272/2008 regulation, postponing the date for submission of poison centre notifications for consumer use mixtures from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2021.

Annex VIII to the CLP regulation, adopted on March 2017, established three deadlines for submissions to take place dependent on the use of the mixture; consumer use for 1 January 2020, professional use for 1 January 2021 and industrial use for 1 January 2024. However, due to concerns that the deadline implemented for consumer use was too short for effective implementation by EU Member States and industry, an initiative was published known as “Hazardous substances – rules on information to be provided for an emergency health response (update)” (1). This initiative aimed to gather the opinions of industry in order to determine whether or not a change to the consumer product use deadline would be beneficial.

The original date for mixtures for consumer use had been met with scepticism due to workability concerns such as variabilities in mixture compositions, difficulties in knowing the exact composition of products over large supply chains and the impact of multiple suppliers of mixture components with the same technical properties and hazards (2). Taking these issues together, it was felt that not all companies would be able to meet the consumer use deadline. This resulted in the European Commission launching a public consultation within the initiative on a draft regulation. The postponement of the submission deadline for consumer products was met with a largely positive reception during this consultation.

It is also important to note that while the consumer deadline has been postponed, the deadlines for mixtures with professional use and industrial use remain unchanged.

References:

1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2019-4744568_en

2. https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/3/2019/EN/C-2019-7611-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF
   

Author: 

Chris Nugent, Associate Hazard Communication Consultant, Yordas Group