Chemicals

Draft Commission Regulation amending Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (4 pages + Annex 36 pages, in English)

This draft Regulation relates to an update of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH) on requirements for safety data sheets (SDS):

·         Alignment with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), 6^th and 7^th revisions, most prominently in Sections 9 (Physical and chemical properties) and 14 (Transport).

·         Alignment with the provisions of Annex VIII (on emergency health response) to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP), in particular in relation to the Unique Formula Identifiers (UFIs) assigned to hazardous mixtures, in Section 1 (Identification).

·         Alignment with the new provisions for nanoform substances, adopted on 3 December 2018 through the revision of REACH Annexes I, III, and VI-XII to REACH (Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/1881), in Sections 1 (Identification), 3 (Composition/information on ingredients) and 9 (Physical and chemical properties).

In addition to the above three main changes, a number of smaller amendments are proposed to the text, related to recent developments in the Commission's approaches to risk management of chemicals, such as on endocrine disruptors. Application of the amended Annex is deferred to 31 December 2022 to allow stakeholders sufficient time to adapt and achieve compliance.