April 2018 Edition

ChemRegs Newsletter – April 2018

Over 80% of internet advertisements for hazardous chemicals do not have the required warnings

The ECHA Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement (the Forum) has published the findings of an enforcement project focusing on the control of internet sales of hazardous mixtures.

The project’s aim was to check whether the advertisements of hazardous chemical mixtures offered for sale on the internet comply with the requirements of Article 48(2) of the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. This provision requires that an advertisement for a mixture classified as hazardous under CLP has to state the hazards in the advertisement itself, if the mixture can be purchased without first seeing the label.

The Forum decided to start the project on the control of internet sales due to the following reasons: 

  • Internet sales (e-commerce) of mixtures classified as hazardous are becoming more and more common and their frequency have been increasing over the years; 
  • National enforcement authorities (NEAs) in the EU Member States are finding that information on the hazards is regularly lacking on websites offering hazardous products. There was a need to check if the advertisements are being prepared according to the requirements.
  • EU co-operation in enforcing internet sales is essential for this project as the customers of one website can be based in any of the Member States; and
  • The available results of past e-commerce projects showed frequent non-compliance in the sale of chemicals over the internet.

Before the inspections took place, the NEAs in the EU Member States had different views on whether a direct link to a safety data sheet (SDS) could fulfil the obligations of Article 48(2).

However, according to the European Commission’s legal interpretation, the direct link to an SDS cannot fulfil the information obligations of Article 48(2) of CLP. Availability of an SDS on the website used for advertising mixtures according to Article 48(2) of CLP can only be considered as additional information for the general public about the type or types of hazards on the label.

Therefore, the inspectors participating in this project followed the Commission’s interpretation.

For an advertisement to be considered as compliant with Article 48(2), the language requirements according to Article 17(2) CLP must also be considered in the advertisement. As labels are meant for health, environment and consumer protection, they must be understood by the users of the products. According to 17(2) of CLP, the label shall be written in the official languages(s) of the Member State(s) where the substance or mixture is placed on the market, unless the Member State(s) concerned provide(s) otherwise.

NEAs from 15 EU Member States participated in the project and carried out the desktop inspections from in 2017 (January–August) using a manual and questionnaire prepared by the Forum. The reporting phase took place from September 2017 to February 2018. The UK did not participate.

Inspectors checked various types of distribution websites such internet auctions/platform, professional suppliers’ internet shop, private advertisers and others, including do it yourself (DIY) online shops and global distributors of various products. The majority of the inspected distribution websites, 95.9%, were the professional supplier’s own web shop and only 2.4% were internet auctions/platforms.

Different types of mixtures were checked:

  • household, e.g cleaning agents, pool chemicals, drain/toilet cleaning products (37.7%);
  • construction, e.g paints, coatings, adhesives, solvents, glues (16.7%);
  • motor, e.g cleaning agents, coatings, lubricants (14%);
  • hobby, e.g glues, paints, solvents (11.9%);
  • garden, e.g plant protection agents, biocides (9.3%); and
  • others e.g. insect repellents, liquids for water treatment and essential oils etc (10.4%).

A total of 1 314 internet advertisements were checked, with 1 083 (82.4 %) found to be non-compliant with the requirements of Article 48(2) of CLP. Only 210 advertisements (16%) were in compliance and 21 advertisements (1.6%) were suspected of non-compliance (these cases not having being settled by the time the report was prepared).

The majority of the non-compliant advertisements did not contain the required information on hazards and 9% did not have the text of the hazard statements in the official language of the relevant EU Member State.

In cases of non-compliance, inspectors took appropriate enforcement measures to remedy or sanction it. In most cases, written or verbal advice was given, but other measures, such as fines, administrative orders or criminal complaints, were also taken. Additionally, 223 voluntary actions were taken by the company to remedy the situation. 

ECHA has also issued a set of recommendations, which are based on the findings of the project:

  • Recommendation to industry – Industry and trade associations could develop common strategies to clarify what is a lawful sale on the internet. For this purpose, a collection of positive examples could also be compiled by industry and distributed to associations to pass to the companies concerned.
  • Recommendation to the European Commission – Specification of the wording of Article 48 (2) to avoid undefined legal concepts. The development of a guideline should be considered to facilitate the online retailer’s implementation of Article 48 (2) of CLP and to determine how to achieve online trade within the meaning of the Regulation.
  • Recommendation to enforcement authorities and inspectors – The national enforcement authorities should continue to perform inspections. 
  • Recommendations to the Forum – The Forum members that did not participate in the project should consider conducting national inspections to control internet sales of mixtures classified as hazardous and investigate if they comply with Article 48(2) of the CLP Regulation. Based on the high rate of non-compliance observed in the results of the project, the Forum could consider including the topic on the control of internet sales in a future REACH-EN-FORCE (REF) project.

Note – The Forum’s REACH-EN-FORCE-6 (REF-6) project is currently underway to check whether the classification and labelling of a mixture corresponds to the information presented in the safety data sheet for the mixture (see our February Newsletter).

Other News

Poison Centres Notification (PCN) format

ECHA has released the Poison Centres Notification (PCN) format for submitting information on hazardous mixtures to the EU Member State appointed bodies.

Under Article 45 and the new Annex VIII of the CLP Regulation, companies placing certain hazardous mixtures on the market have to provide information to national appointed bodies. The national appointed body or bodies may be a Member State Competent Authority on CLP (MSCA), a poison centre, a National Health Authority or another body appointed by the MSCA. (See our March Newsletter).

The PCN format structures the information submitted to the national appointed bodies and the format has been organised based on the information and data requirements laid out in Annex VIII to the CLP Regulation.

The information includes product identification (including a new label element – the unique formula identifier – UFI), hazard identification, composition and toxicological information.

The PCN format is compatible with IUCLID, a software that is developed at OECD level and promotes the harmonisation of information on chemicals. IUCLID is already used to record and maintain chemical information under REACH, CLP and the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR).

This harmonisation ensures that the information available to medical personnel in poisoning incidents is consistent across the EU. It also allows importers and downstream users in different EU Member States to use the same submission or submission format.

The format was developed to also take into account the processing requirements, both for a future centralised PCN portal, as well as for the appointed bodies in the Member States, as ultimate recipients of the PCN notifications.

To facilitate the implementation of IT solutions for this format, the following documents are available on the ECHA Poison Centres website:

  • PCN format: the format is available as a set of XML schema definition files (XSDs). There is also a data model that shows all relevant fields and their interconnections.
  • Preparing a PCN dossier – Part A: this provides a technical background and offers a practical guide to industry on how to encode, prepare and complete a dossier that is compliant with the PCN format.
  • Developers’ guide to IUCLID format – Part B: this explains the structure of the IUCLID file so that developers can build other systems than IUCLID 6, which can generate this format.
  • Examples of PCN files are also provided for both single and group notifications.

For more information on anything in this Newsletter, please contact us at info@chemregs.co.uk

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