Commission’s new draft amendments to Poison Centre Legalisation will mean for the chemical industry in Europe
What the European
Author: Larissa Silver and Jonathan Lang, National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC)
In early 2016, the European Commission published its first draft amendments to the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP) regulations for public consultation. The chemical industry has eagerly anticipated the Commission’s comments on CLP, with particular attention focussing on the possible changes to article 45 and the impact this will have on poison centre compliance for businesses handling hazardous goods in Europe. Formal ratification of the amendment is not expected until late 2016; however the draft text offers crucial insight into the Commission’s intentions and priorities for the future.
In this article, Larissa Silver and Jonathon Lang from the National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC), reviews the key changes in the amendment and explains the steps businesses may have to take to stay compliant and secure business continuity across Europe.
Harmonising poison centre requirements Article 45 of CLP currently stipulates that countries must appoint a body that is able to receive information on mixtures considered hazardous on the basis of health or physical effects, primarily to use in case of medical emergencies. However, without additional clarification countries have implemented this legislation in a variety of ways. The level of information required by a poison centre on a product’s hazards, the registration process, the products that need to be registered and the cost of compliance varies widely between Member States. Therefore businesses operating in markets across Europe need to analyse and determine each particular countries’ requirements, as failure to register adequately can result in substantial fines or the removal of that product from the market.
Following consultation with a number of stakeholders, the Commission identified a number of key issues: • A lack of consistency in the interpretation of the legislation across Europe.
• The likelihood of a business having to make multiple submissions, adding unfair cost and a significant burden on industry.
• In up to 40% of cases, the poison centre was providing advice on the wrong product, risking health and causing unnecessary hospital submissions.
The new amendment aims to overcome these issues by harmonising poison centre registration across Member States and determining new methods for identifying and tracking registered products. However, compliance remains a complex process. With substantial changes on the horizon for product registrations companies risk being caught out when the amendments are eventually introduced. Here are some of the key changes proposed by the Commission that are likely to have an impact on how the chemical industry operates in Europe.
A base level of information In a move to make the regulations more consistent across Europe, the draft specifies a base level of chemical information that companies must submit to poison centres about their products. The majority of this chemical information is likely to be present on existing compliant safety data sheets (SDS), such as the colour, physical state, pH, hazards and precautionary statements.
New information is also required on the non-hazardous components if they are above a certain threshold, although further safeguards have been introduced to protect intellectual
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.136 DECEMBER 2016
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