NEWS
May 2009
29/05/2009
570 People form around the world took part in ECHA´s Stakeholders´day.
Over 570
representatives of stakeholders from 33 countries (ranging from the EU
Member States to India, Korea and the USA) participated in the European
Chemicals Agency��s (ECHA) second Stakeholders�� Day. Over 300 were present at
the Conference Centre in Helsinki and a further 270 joined in via webstream.
The participants discussed the urgent need for companies to work together
and share data in order to prepare joint dossiers for the registration of
each chemical substance.
At the request of industry, ECHA launched an
awareness campaign, called the clock is ticking C form your SIEF now,
which intends to raise awareness of the urgent need for action if companies
are to meet the first substance registration deadline of 30 November 2010.
The campaign banner is available to download from ECHAs website and is free
for all to use. Industry associations and national helpdesks are
particularly encouraged to join the campaign.
The
campaign will seek to promote examples of best practice from companies who
are well advanced in the registration process. It will also provide
additional support for companies who are the so called Lead Registrants C
the company taking the lead in developing the registration dossier on behalf
of all the other companies who manufacture or import the same substance. For
example, monthly webinars are planned for Lead Registrants to help them
through the process.
The event
was webstreamed live across the globe and is still viewable until 27 June.
All the slides presented at the event are also available online.
26/05/2009
First Substances of very high concern move one step closer to tighter
control
The Member
State Committee of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) adopted an opinion
sharing the ECHA Secretariats view that seven substances of very high
concern should be included in the so-called Authorisation List. The opinion
was adopted by consensus. The Agency will finalise its recommendation on
these substances, taking into account the Opinion of the Member State
Committee, and submit it to the European Commission by 1 June 2009.
April 2009
30/04/2009
FIRST COORDINATED REACH ENFORCEMENT PROJECT STARTED
REACH-EN-FORCE-1, a joint REACH enforcement
project, has started across Europe. National inspectors are checking
pre-registrations, registrations and C where applicable C the provisions for
Safety Data Sheets. The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement,
meeting for the fourth time this week in Helsinki, reviewed the start of the
project and agreed on the further steps.
24/04/2009
GETTING STARTED IN SIEFS -TOP TIPS PUBLISHED
ECHA has
published a REACH Fact Sheet providing registrants top tips on how to get
started in SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Fora). SIEFs have a
critical role within REACH and ECHA wants to do what it can to try to ensure
that they succeed in sharing and assessing data as well as preparing the
common parts of the registration. At the same time, the Agency would like to
remind companies that SIEFS are independent C they are not owned by ECHA.
23/24/2009
ECHA LAUNCHES OPEN CALL FOR TENDER FOR RISK COMMUNICATION GUIDANCE
ECHA has responsibilities for risk communication. These include providing of
guidance to Member State and stakeholders on the communication of risks and
the safe use of chemical substances. ECHA has now launched an invitation to
tender for companies interested in helping us to produce a risk
communication guidance document.
17/04/2009
REACH-IT C ONLINE INQUIRY SUBMISSION NOW AVAILABLE
ECHA has updated REACH-IT by adding an online inquiry submission
functionality and a functionality to change legal entity names in the
system. Documentation is also published to assist companies with the online
inquiry and the change in legal entity name. In addition, REACH-IT can now
be accessed by Member States Competent Authorities that fulfill ECHAs
standard security requirements. In addition, ECHA has published an Industry
User Manual outlining the checks that the Agency makes immediately after a
dossier has been received.
08/04/2009
ECHA PUBLISHES WORKSHOP REPORT ON AUTHORISATION
06/04/2009
WALLSTR?M OPENS ECHAS CONFERENCE CENTRE AND CALLS FOR A UN CHEMICALS PANEL
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) inaugurated its new conference centre
on Friday 3 April. In the event, the European Commission Vice-President
Margot Wallstr?m called for a new high level UN panel to tackle the risks
from chemicals.
March 2009
27/03/2009
ECHA publishes an updated List of
Pre-registered Substances. An updated
version of the List of Pre-registered Substances was published today on the
ECHA website. It contains around 143,000 substances which were
pre-registered by 65,000 companies between 1 June and 1 December 2008. ECHA
does not expect all of these substances to be registered.
26/03/2009
ECHA publishes a webpage on
Socio-Economic Analysis. A new page
on socio-economic analysis is now available on the ECHA website. It
introduces the role of the socio-economic analysis in the restriction and
authorisation procedures and other legislative actions on chemical
substances under REACH.
25/03/2009
ECHA welcomes all to a Second
Stakeholders' Day.
On 27 May 2009,
the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will hold its second Stakeholders' Day
at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, Finland. Up to 500
participants worldwide from industry, national authorities and interest groups
will attend. Participation is free of charge. The proceedings can also be
followed over the Internet via web streaming. The event will precede the
Helsinki Chemicals Forum which will take place on 28 and 29 May 2009, in
the same venue.
05/03/2009
Conference on EU and world-wide rules for
classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals on 17 June 2009,
Brussels.
The conference aims to inform authorities, industry and other
stakeholders about the new provisions for classification, labelling and packaging
in the EU, placing them in the global context of GHS. It will explain the
main features of the new legislation, focusing on practical aspects. It
will provide up-to-date information on the CLP guidance documents and
tools.
February 2009
23/02/2009
First public consultation on harmonised
classification and labelling.
ECHA has today published on its
website the first public consultation on a proposal to harmonise the
classification and labelling of two chemical substances. Comments are
welcome on the proposal within the next 45 days. All comments will be taken
into account in the subsequent decision-making process.
18/02/2009
REACH-IT was improved by means of a new
"patch" on Monday 16th February.
This new patch focuses on improving
your searches on pre-registrations and pre-SIEFs, as well as downloading
the pre-SIEF XML file. We have also replaced the upload component which has
not worked as well as we had hoped. The overall stability of the site has
consequently improved.
ECHA will closely monitor the new application's performance to see whether
further improvements are necessary. You can be a help in that process by
reporting any problems directly to the ECHA Helpdesk.
Many thanks.
13/02/2009
Clarification in relation to PRE-SIEFs and SIEFs.
Currently the
main REACH obligation for companies which pre-registered substances last
year is to form SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Forums). These should
be operational as soon as possible, particularly in those cases where companies
need to submit their registrations to ECHA before 1 December 2010.
11/02/2009
REACH-IT to be
upgraded C System closed 13 C 16 February,
Over the coming
weekend, ECHA will upgrade REACH-IT to address performance issues related
to the searching and viewing of pre-registrations & pre-SIEFs, and the
pre-SIEF XML download. REACH-IT is scheduled to be off line from 3pm Friday
13 February until 2pm Monday 16 February. Any change to this schedule will
be announced on the ECHA website under REACH-IT/Portal.
04/02/2009
The IUCLID 5 End User Manual is now available in 22
languages,
The IUCLID 5 End User Manual has been translated into 21 EU languages.
The Manual helps users to work with the software in a company environment
and serves as a complete reference document for IUCLID functionalities and
for preparing dossiers to be submitted to ECHA.
January 2009
26/01/2009
Query plug-in adds more search functions to IUCLID 5.
A IUCLID 5 Query plug-in is now
available for downloading on the IUCLID website. It extends the ways in
which data can be searched in a user's IUCLID 5 database and provides easy
access to administrative and scientific data.
26/01/2009
REACH-IT improved to facilitate SIEF formation.
Today, ECHA has updated REACH-IT
by improving searches and messaging modules. The improvements are expected
to increase the availability and stability of the system so that companies
can form SIEFs. ECHA is currently monitoring the impact of these changes
and continues implementing additional improvements to further enhance the
performance of REACH-IT.
20/01/2009
REACH-IT update - Performance will be improve.
The new REACH-IT release went
online on 5 January as scheduled. Companies must now submit all their
dossiers, including late pre-registrations, to ECHA via REACH-IT.
Currently, the REACH-IT-system is affected by very high levels of use,
leading to slow access to the pre-SIEFs and slow dossier submission. ECHA
is working on solutions to improve system performance which will be
implemented progressively. Companies are asked to be patient.
19/01/2009
The first service release of IUCLID 5 is now
available.
An upgrade (5.1) is now available for the standalone and the
distributed versions of IUCLID 5. The upgrade can be downloaded free of
charge from the 'Get IUCLID 5' section of the IUCLID 5 website.
14/01/2009
Public consultation on inclusion of substances in the
authorisation list.
ECHA launched today a public consultation on the first draft
recommendation of substances to be included in the list of substances
subject to authorisation (Annex XIV or Authorisation List). Interested
parties can submit comments by using the relevant web forms on the ECHA
website until 14 April 2009.
News Archive
|