ECHA Prepares For Biocides, PIC Handover
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) plans to hire 19 staff to deal with EU biocide approvals and will need more than 100 to process the 300 authorisation requests expected annually by 2020, it said last week.
08.02.2012 |ENDS Europe
Speaking at a Helsinki press briefing, ECHA's director of regulatory affairs Jukka Malm said the agency will also need about eight employees to handle chemical export notifications under the EU's prior informed consent (PIC) regime.
Mr Malm said he expected revised biocide and PIC regulations to enter force in mid-2012. The chemicals agency has been given extra powers to regulate both.
This year ECHA will also help companies prepare for the second major REACH registration deadline http://www.endseurope.com/28092?referrer=bulletin&DCMP=EMC-ENDS-EUROPE-DAILY in 2013, improve dissemination of the data it has collected and help the EU executive with the REACH review, due to be completed by 1 June.
Compliance checks have shown many registration dossiers to be inadequate, with 117 of the 282 assessed by December resulting in a formal request for further information and 59 in a less-stringent 'quality observation letter'. Last year ECHA said it would like powers to fine registrants with completely inadequate dossiers.
In the meantime, it is encouraging companies to act responsibly by updating their submissions. It will also shift its attention this year from compliance checks to the review of animal testing proposals in 2010 registrations, which must be done by the end of 2012. It is worried some firms may have started tests without regulatory approval.
The final version of the first community rolling action plan (CoRAP), which sets out the substance evaluations to be carried out by member states over the next three years, is likely to be rubber-stamped at the end of the month.
The first deadline for firms seeking authorisation of substances on REACH's annex XIV list is February 2013 http://www.endseurope.com/25622?referrer=bulletin&DCMP=EMC-ENDS-EUROPE-DAILY. ECHA has yet to receive applications but has been talking to potential applicants and expects some submissions later this year. It is also preparing a proposal to restrict 1,4-dichlorobenzene in toilet blocks and air fresheners.
ECHA will publish the CLP registry next week, which includes safety data on more than 100,000 substances. This is bigger than the database of REACH registrations because it includes chemicals not yet registered and those made or imported in small quantities.
The European agency also said it plans to talk to stakeholders this year to see how it can make REACH registration data more available and accessible to the public. It will release some limited data on substances in articles later this month.
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