From: EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) have announced a partnership that will promote enhanced technical cooperation on chemical management activities. The partnership is part of EPA’s commitment to improve chemical safety. ECHA is the agency that implements the European Union’s chemical management program known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals).

A statement issued puts in place a process for working together on a range of issues of mutual interest including toxicity testing, the hazard and risk assessment of chemicals, risk management tools, scientific collaboration, and information exchange.

One of the major anticipated areas of collaboration will be on the exchange of data and information….The two agencies will also share criteria for managing confidential business information with the goal to increase the availability of chemical information to the public.

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From: PRLog

Korea has taken a major step toward achieving full compliance with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the classification and labeling of chemicals by identifying 151 substances as “hazardous” for consultation. The Ministry of the Environment (MoE) in Korea also is placing more responsibilities on manufacturers and importers by introducing new rules regarding updating and content of material safety data sheets (MSDS).

The MoE has provided a list of the substances together with each proposed classification on its website that includes a description of the methodology used and a list of the evidence for each proposed classification along with a facility to provide feedback via e-mail to the MoE.

Companies should also be aware that an amendment of the ISHA is planned in January 2011 and due to take effect in July 2011. This amendment will place a new responsibility on manufacturers and importers — rather than users — to supply GHS-compliant MSDSs. There will also be an obligation to keep MSDSs fully reviewed and updated.

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From: Environmental Leader

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has removed saccharin and its salts from its list of hazardous substances.

Saccharin is found in diet soft drinks, chewing gum and juice. It was also used in early sugar substitutes, as it is approximately 300 times sweeter than sucrose or sugar.

Saccharin was considered a potential carcinogenic substance in the 1980s, but in the late 1990s, the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer re-evaluated the available scientific information on saccharin and its salts and concluded that it is not a potential human carcinogen.

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From: ECHA

Today, the European Chemicals Agency has added eight chemical substances to the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) for Authorisation. Companies are advised to check the potential obligations that result from this listing.

Following the unanimous agreement of the Member State Committee, ECHA is adding eight substances to the Candidate List, which now contains 46 substances in total. …Companies manufacturing, importing or using these substances may have legal obligations resulting from their inclusion in the List. These obligations can apply to the listed substances on their own as well as in mixtures and in articles.

These chemicals are: Cobalt(II) sulphate, Cobalt(II) dinitrate, Cobalt (II) carbonate, Cobalt(II) diacetate, 2-Methoxyethanol, 2-Ethoxyethanol, Chromium trioxide, and acids generated from chromium trioxide and their oligomers.

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From: OEHHA

On October 22, 2010, OEHHA published a notice in the California Regulatory Notice Register (Register 10 No. 43-Z) soliciting information which may be relevant to the evaluation of cocamide diethanolamine (coconut oil acid diethanolamine condensate) (CAS No. 68603-42-9) under consideration for possible listing within the context of the Proposition 65 administrative listing regulatory criteria in Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations section 25306.

The publication of the notice initiated a 60‑day public comment period which would have closed on December 21, 2010.  OEHHA has received a request from interested parties seeking an extension of the comment period to allow for the submission of complete and relevant scientific information for cocamide diethanolamine (coconut oil acid diethanolamine condensate).  OEHHA hereby extends the public comment period for this chemical until 5 p.m., Tuesday, February 1, 2011.

For more information on this public comment period, please click the above link.

From: Yahoo Finance

On December 14, 2010, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, federal Minister of Health, was pleased to announce that the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), had been passed by Parliament and, upon Royal Assent, would become law.

The new CCPSA will better protect the health and safety of Canadians by:

• prohibiting the manufacture, importation, advertisement or sale of any consumer products that pose an unreasonable danger to human health or safety;
• requiring industry to report when they know about a serious incident, or death, related to their product to provide government with timely information about important product safety issues;
• requiring manufacturers or importers to provide test/study results on products when asked;
• allowing Health Canada to recall dangerous consumer products; and
• raising fines and penalties for non-compliance.

Over the past year, the Harper Government has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to consumer product safety through new regulations on lead, cribs and cradles, and surface coating materials. With the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, the Government will continue to provide a high level of protection for Canadians and will be able to do even more to address emerging consumer product safety issues.

Click on the links for more information.

From: The Dake Page

November 30th has passed and all of the chemical substances pre-registered at manufacture or import above 1000 tonnes per year should have now been registered.  Now ECHA has made available a searchable database of information on registered substances.

According to ECHA, the information in the database was provided by companies in their registration dossiers. You can find a variety of information on the substances which companies manufacture or import: their hazardous properties, their classification and labelling and how to use the substances safely.

In total (as of earlier this week), there had been 19,182 REACH registrations and over 1.4 million classification and labeling notifications.

Click on the links for more information.

From: Environmental Defence

The Canadian Consumer Specialty Products Association (CCSPA) and Environmental Defence applaud last night’s passage of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act by the Senate of Canada.  The new Act is an update to the 40-year old Hazardous Products Act.

The European Union and the United States currently have laws that enable their governments to make mandatory product recalls and to order product safety tests, and now Canada does too. Prior to this new legislation, recalls were only made by companies voluntarily.

The commitment to reintroduce the proposed Act was made in the March 3, 2010 speech from the Throne and the legislation was reintroduced on June 9, 2010. The Bill was passed unanimously by the House of Commons on October 29, 2010; and, as of last night, the Bill has passed the Senate.  We thank all Parliamentarians for their thorough review of the Bill over the past year.

We will keep you informed of any changes resulting from this new legislation.

From: Health Canada

This recall involves several La Biosthetique brand aerosol hair care products. The following hair care products come in pressurized containers with the name “Biosthetics” written on the side. In total, six products coming in various sizes have been recalled.

The recalled products do not meet labelling requirements for potentially flammable and explosive products under Canadian law. This lack of labelling information, including appropriate warnings, could result in misuse of the product and lead to serious injury.

The recalled products were sold from June 2010 to October 2010.

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From: AFP

More than 400 chemicals that cause cancer, mutations or reproductive problems are being used in the European Union, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) said in Helsinki on Wednesday…The ECHA unveiled what spokesman Mikko Vaananen described as “without exaggeration the most ambitious chemicals database project in the world,” containing a total of 4,300 substances.

Companies were required to register hazardous chemicals with the ECHA by the end of November if they used or imported more than one tonne per year, and any industrial chemical of which they used or imported more than 1,000 tonnes per year. Companies which failed to register certain types of substances by the deadline are no longer allowed to manufacture, import or use that substance as of Wednesday.

By the final deadline, on May 31, 2018, every industrial chemical, no matter how little of it is used, is supposed to be included in the catalogue.

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