REACH and CLP

Published 13/07/2022 - Edited 02/02/2023

In 2006, the Regulation (EC) no. 1907/2006 (REACH, Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals) was adopted by the Member states and the European Union.

One of the purposes of REACH is to generate information on all chemicals used in the EU to ensure their safe use and to eliminate the most hazardous ones.

At the same time, REACH promotes the competitiveness of the European chemical industry and the use of alternative methods for assessing hazards in order to reduce the number of tests carried out on animals.

REACH requires companies to register chemicals produced or imported into the EU in quantities equal to or greater than one ton per year. The registration consists in submitting a dossier with information on properties and uses of the substance placed on the market.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has been established in order to manage the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of this regulation and to ensure consistency at Community level in relation to these aspects. The number of registrations submitted by companies to ECHA is of 23445 (last update 13 October 2021).

CNSC has the role of national interface with ECHA.

In order to ensure that there is sufficient information available on the chemicals placed on the EU market, to protect human health and environment, ECHA verifies if the information submitted by registrants is compliant with the REACH legal requirements. The standard information requirements for the substances depend on the tonnage band. CNSC supports ECHA in this activity with its experts involved in the activities of the ECHA Committees

CNSC, with the other Member State, is also involved in substance evaluation process and coordinate for Italy this activity.

The scope of the substance evaluation performed by the Member States is to clarify whether the use of a substance is safe for human and the environment and request further information to the registrants, if necessary.

As a follow-up, the evaluating Member State may proceed with appropriate actions in order to control the risk of the substance.

For this purpose, CNSC is involved in preparation of different proposals of Risk Management such as harmonised classification, identification of substances of very high concern (SVHC) and restriction.