EU Chemical Compliance

European Union Chemical Compliance, Inspections and Enforcement

In order to determine the effectiveness of the varied chemical legislation introduced in the EU, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) developed the Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement (Forum). Each Member State in the European Economic Area (EEA) was asked to provide a representative to discuss issues involving the implementation of the REACH, CLP, and PIC Regulations individually in their own countries and collectively across the EU.

The Forum develops and coordinates the introduction of enforcement projects based on different aspects of the REACH, CLP and PIC regulations. Inspectors based in the national authorities in the participating Member States will carry out these enforcement projects and report back to the Forum on their findings.   Once information has been gathered from each Member State, a Project Report is developed outlining the results of the project and any recommendation to be implemented by: the Forum, ECHA, competent authorities or industry.

One of the main set of enforcement projects is the REACH-EN-FORCE (REF) projects which were developed to determine compliance with regard to particular obligations imposed by the REACH, CLP and PIC Regulations within the EEA.     There have been six REACH-EN-FORCE projects developed and implemented, two of which are currently ongoing; REACH-EN-FORCE-5 (Ref 5) on exposure scenarios, extended SDS, RMM and OC and REACH-EN-FORCE-6 (Ref 6) on the control of classification and labelling of mixtures.

The latest project introduced, Ref 6, focuses on the classification and labelling of mixtures to determine the compliance with the requirements outlined in the CLP Regulations but also to ensure that the information on the label matches the information provided in the corresponding Safety Data Sheet (SDS).  Thirty-one countries across the EEA will participate in this project.  This project is widespread and all companies who manufacture or supply chemicals in these jurisdictions may be asked to participate.  It will allow the Forum to determine if there are any shortcomings with the implementation of the CLP Regulations.  Member States may also include additional modules to their inspections including;

• Exemptions concerning labelling and packaging requirements,
• The obligation to apply harmonized classification and labelling, and
• The specific requirements of CLP for liquid laundry detergent capsules.

All Member States are asked to complete these inspections in 2018 with the resulting report to be issued in late 2019.

Ensuring the effectiveness of the current legislation is paramount for the implementation of new or updated legislation.  During the inspection process it is important for companies to be as open and truthful as possible to determine what may need to be done in future to provide companies with a better understanding of their requirements.

Chemdoc can help to efficiently monitor REACH compliance for your organization and your suppliers.

Safety Data Sheets

Run reports of all safety data sheets to identify products that do not currently have correct EU compliant safety data sheets attached.

REACH Registration numbers