Next REACH Regulation Deadline: June 1, 2011

Companies that manufacture products in Europe, or distribute into Europe, need to be aware of the upcoming June 1, 2011 REACH compliance deadline.

By June 1, 2011 companies must notify ECHA about certain Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) in articles.

When ECHA says "articles," that typically means what in the U.S. we call "finished goods," meaning retail commodities such as furniture, construction products, clothing, etc. However, there is an asterisk on the definition of articles, so please see below for details.*

REACH deadline compliance criteria

Businesses who make or sell goods in Europe have a legal obligation to notify ECHA by June 1, 2011 if:

any Substance of Very High Concern that is on the Candidate List is present in their articles
such SVHC is above the threshold of 0.1% weight by weight and
the quantity of such substance in those articles is over 1 tonne per producer/importer per year

Got that? Here's how the deadline comes to be.

June 1, 2011 deadline centers on Candidate List

For those substances included in the Candidate List by 1 December 2010, the relevant notifications have to be submitted not later than 1 June 2011. This follows the REACH rule about companies having to notify ECHA of the presence of such a substance in their articles not later than 6 months after the inclusion of such a substance in the pre-Dec 1, 2010 Candidate List.

Bear in mind of course that there were 8 substances added to the list in mid-December. Their deadline is mid-June.

To support companies in complying with their obligations, ECHA recommends using REACH software. This week ECHA updated its own software portal, REACH-IT, to allow the submission of notifications for substances in articles.

In order to explain the actual submission process, ECHA says it has created a new Data Submission Manual for substances in articles. Interested parties can find more information on this REACH process on ECHA web site, hopefully the links below will help you get there. Contact the author of this blog for more information.

Reference links for REACH

New Web pages on substances in articles notifications
http://echa.europa.eu/reach/sia_en.asp

Data Submission Manual – Part 20: How to Prepare and Submit a Substance in Articles Notification using IUCLID 5
http://www.echa.europa.eu/doc/reachit/dsm20/dsm_20_v1.0_en.pdf

*Definitions of articles

Articles in REACH documentation are defined as follows.

Most of the commonly used objects in private households and industries are articles, e.g. furniture, clothes, vehicles, books, toys, and electronic equipment. An article may be very simple, like a wooden chair, but it could also be rather complex, like a computer.

The REACH Regulation defines an article as "an object which during production is given a special shape, surface or design which determines its function to a greater degree than its chemical composition."

In this regard, the shape, surface and design of an object represent its physical appearance and can be understood as other than chemical characteristics:

Shape means the three-dimensional form of an object, like depth, width and height.

Surface means the outermost layer of an object.

Design means the arrangement of the ‘elements of design’ in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose.

For example, the design of a textile may be determined by the twist of fibres in the yarn, the weave of threads in a fabric and the treatment of the surface of the textile.

The term “function” in the article definition should be interpreted as meaning the basic principle determining the use of the object rather than the degree of technical sophistication. In this sense, for example, the function of a printer cartridge is basically to bring ink onto paper, and the function of a battery is to provide electric current.

(See more at ECHA.)

Summary

In summary, European nations are divided over the way to define an article under the chemicals regulation REACH: the European Commission insists it should be the article as sold, while six EU member states plus Norway argue that it should be any stand-alone components. This well-put by Agri-net ("serving the agri-food industry") in a pay-only article so take our word for it.

Consider using ECHA's software, software by Actio or other third party supplier-data management technology. It's worth starting now -- when the regulation is relatively young, enforcement is relatively minimal, and compliance framework is relatively easy to set up. It won't always be this way.

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