ECHA recommends immediate risk management of 300 chemicals

Recently, ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) released its fourth report under the Comprehensive Regulatory Strategy, which shows considerable progress in accelerating the pace of regulatory action for substances of concern
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ECHA's Integrated Regulatory Strategy is an action aimed at accelerating data collection and identification of substance groups of interest and advancing risk management
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It integrates disparate regulatory processes into a coherent approach to effectively and efficiently manage chemical risks
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The goal of the strategy is to identify which registered substances are high priority substances for risk management or data supplementation and which are low priority substances
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Chemical Group Assessment:

First, the group assessment of chemicals has accelerated ECHA's work.
In 2021, ECHA completed the group assessment of more than 1,900 substances (mostly grouped according to their structural similarities), an increase of 30% over 2020
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About 300 of these substances require immediate risk management measures, while 800 currently require no further action
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For the remaining 800 substances, more data needs to be collected, of which about 350 substances are expected to be transferred to risk management in the future
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While risk management actions need to be identified before they can begin, the report also highlights a dramatic increase in substances requiring harmonized classification and labelling (CLH)
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Compared to 2020, the number tripled in 2021
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Since CLH is often a prerequisite for moving forward with further regulatory measures, authorities have devoted sufficient resources to preparing CLH proposals for these substances to avoid creating a regulatory backlog
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Despite substantial progress in substance regulatory action, there are still nearly 1,300 large-tonnage substances (over 100 t/y) to be assessed
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What should the business do?

In this case, for officials, ECHA needs to strengthen cooperation with member states in order to discuss and agree on which substances to be prioritized for evaluation in a timely manner
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Member States will need to devote immediate resources to addressing substances that require further regulatory action – particularly with regard to harmonized classification and labelling
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For businesses, it is important to proactively review and update data in their registration files to avoid inappropriate regulatory action by officials based on outdated data
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Because registration data is the basis for assessing regulatory needs, and further regulatory action may also mandate supplemental data, companies may still face the apportionment of additional data and compliance costs for dossier or CSR updates due to changes in substance classification
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