15 new substances of very high concern to be added to the Candidate List

Tuesday, 08 December, 2009

The European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) Member State Committee has identified 15 new chemical substances for the Candidate List of substances of very high concern.

Substances of very high concern will be gradually included in Annex XIV of the REACH Regulation. Once included in that Annex, they cannot be placed on the market or used after a date to be set (the so-called ‘sunset date’) unless the company is granted an authorisation.

Substances of very high concern include substances which are:

Carcinogenic, Mutagenic or toxic to Reproduction (CMR) classified in category 1 or 2,
Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) or very Persistent and very Bioaccumulative (vPvB) according to the criteria in Annex XIII of the REACH Regulation, and/or
identified, on a case-by-case basis, from scientific evidence as causing probable serious effects to humans or the environment of an equivalent level of concern as those above eg, endocrine disrupters.

The Member State Committee agreed unanimously that 15 new substances of very high concern (SVHC) should be put on the Candidate List. Six of these substances were identified in a written procedure and eight at a committee meeting in Helsinki 2-4 December. One substance, lead chromate, will be included in the Candidate List without involvement of the Member State Committee, because ECHA received no comments on its hazardous properties in the preceding public consultation.

ECHA will include the 15 substances in the Candidate List in January 2010. The substances are: