RESTRICTION for LEAD and its COMPOUNDS in PVC

According to the ECHA’s 13^th January 2016 newsletter, the Agency is assessing the need to propose a restriction for the placing on the market and use of lead compounds to stabilise PVC and for the placing on the market of PVC articles stabilised with lead compounds (EC 231-100-4; CAS 7439-92-1). A call for evidence on this is open until 15 February 2016.

The current REACH restrictions and related derogations about lead and its compound are listed at clause 63 of the Annex XVII; besides there are restrictions due to other norms such as RoHS2 and toys directive for instance.

Should ECHA conclude the restriction is needed, the proposal will at first be included within the Registry of Intentions.

ECHA (at the request of the Commission) or Member States may prepare dossiers for the identification of substances of very high concern (SVHCs) and dossiers proposing restrictions (Annex XV of REACH). Dossiers proposing harmonised classification and labelling of substances may be prepared by MSCAs and manufacturers, importers or downstream users.

The aim of the public Registry of Intentions (RoI) is to make interested parties aware of the substances for which a CLH, SVHC or restriction dossier is intended to be submitted. This therefore gives the interested parties time to prepare for commenting later in the respective process. It also avoids duplication of work and encourages cooperation between potential dossier submitters.

Through the registry, you can check whether another dossier submitter has worked on an Annex XV or CLH dossier for a specific substance in the past or is currently preparing a dossier on the substance. It should be noted that for the restrictions process there is a legal requirement for the Member State to notify its intention to prepare an Annex XV restriction dossier to the Agency (Article 69 (5) REACH).

Following the successful submission of the dossiers, a process of public consultation is started, in which concerned parties are invited to comment on the proposal. Based on the comments received during the public consultation, the proposals are discussed in the respective Committees (Risk Assessment Committee for CLH and restrictions, the Committee for Socio-economic Analysis for restrictions, and the Member State Committee for SVHCs).

Interested parties are therefore recommended to regularly consult the RoI, the Public Consultation pages and the RAC, SEAC and MSC pages, to follow the processing of the dossier.

The Registry of Intentions is divided into three separate sections:

1. Current intentions
   • Current CLH intentions
   • Current SVHC intentions
   • Current Restriction intentions
2. Submitted dossiers for CLH, SVHC & Restriction.
   • Submitted CLH proposal
   • Submitted SVHC proposal
   • Submitted Restriction proposal
3. Withdrawn intentions and submissions
   • Withdrawn CLH intention and submission
   • Withdrawn SVHC intention and submission
   • Withdrawn Restriction intention and submission

Source: European Chemical Agency www.echa.europa.eu