The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced earlier this week that the update of their guidance on Substances in Articles will not be published until July or August 2017. ECHA had previously indicated that guidance would be released in early 2017.
The delay is needed to allow ECHA to evaluate the nearly 700 comments on its current draft. Many of the comments received by ECHA requested that the guidance be streamlined and simplified with more focused examples. ECHA had indicated at the meeting that a separate guidance would be published for complex articles.
The guidance is being revised by ECHA to align the requirements for substances of very high concern (SVHCs) in articles with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in 2015 which stated that the 0.1% threshold for notifying SVHCs in articles applies to each article incorporated as a component of a complex product, rather than to the entire article.
IPC comments on ECHA’s guidance can be viewed here. IPC will host a panel discussion on complying with REACH Substances in Articles on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 as part of IPC APEX EXPO.
Filed under: Environment, Health and Safety, IPC Tagged: ECHA, European Chemicals Agency, European Court of Justice, guidance on substances in articles, IPC APEX EXPO, IPC comments, substances of very high concern, SVHC
