20 June 2012

By Olivia Sun, Ph.D (Chem)

Jun 6th, 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has published the “2011 China Environmental Condition Bulletin”. In the “Column” of the Environmental Bulletin, data of chemical management in 2011 were released:

ECHA updates Candidate List with 13 new SVHCs; SVHC notification for these substances is due by 17 December 2012

19 June 2012

With the identification of 13 new SVHCs announced by ECHA on 18 June, the REACH Candidate List now contains 84 substances. All of them are classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR). Producers and importers of articles containing any of the 13 substances will have 6 months from the release date to notify ECHA by 17 December 2012, if both of the following conditions apply:

19 June 2012

19 June, 2012, at the request of the European Commission, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has submitted a report proposing a restriction on the placing on the market and use of 1,4-dichlorobenzene-based air fresheners and toilet blocks. These products are mainly used to deodorise public and domestic toilets.

13 June 2012

The Member State Committee (MSC)¹ of ECHA has unanimously agreed on the identification of five substances of very high concern (SVHCs) during its recent 3-day meeting ending on 8 June. The five SVHCs will be added to the Candidate List and may subsequently become subject to REACH authorisation. The Committee also finalised 41 draft dossier evaluation decisions.

Pesticide goods including in “Inventory of Dangerous Goods”(GB12268) with low toxic and packaged in limited amount can still be exempted from China’s Regulation on Road Transport of Hazardous Goods to some extent

11 June 2012

Last week, China Ministry of Transportation announced an official letter to its provincial bureau, Transportation Department of Gansu, ruled that seizure of the 77.5% dichlorvos EC from Nantong Jiangshan by Gansu local transportation administration in late April was inappropriate and the authority should release the pesticide goods soon.

8 June 2012

From ECHA’s news press – ECHA has published yesterday a Q&A document to provide details in advance on the dissemination and new confidentiality claims of such information in IUCLID 5.4, and encourages registrants to familiarise themselves with the upcoming changes.

8 June 2012

From ECHA’s news alert – The six-month deadline for twenty chemical substances that were added to the Candidate List in December 2011 is approaching. ECHA reminds producers and importers of articles containing any of these twenty substances that they need to send their notifications to ECHA by 19 June 2012, provided they fulfil the conditions for the notification requirement in Article 7 of the REACH Regulation.

By Mr. Nathan Chen, Regulatory Affairs Department (International) of REACH24H China

Background:The client is based in Europe and provides raw materials (less than 1 tonne per year) to importers in China. At the moment, they have three substances not listed on the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China (IECSC) 2010 and requested notification services from us.

Problem: The manufacturing process of these substances involves a physical process, and the client believes the substances that are extracted from these naturally occurring substances qualify for exemption.

More adjustments will continue to be implemented upon hazardous chemical related industry in Shanghai

07 June 2012

Last Month, Shanghai held its 10th Party Congress and blueprinted its portfolios upgrading on heavy industries such as steel and petrochemicals, indicated that more adjustments will continue to be implemented upon hazardous chemical related industries.

6 June 2012

In certain cases downstream users need to report to ECHA if their uses of a registered substance are not covered by the exposure scenario provided by their supplier.