REACH-SVHC for authorisation

Gary Nevison, Farnell

UK: The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has launched a public consultation on its draft recommendation for eight Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) to be included in the Authorisation List (Annex XIV).

Substances in Annex XIV will require (costly) authorisation to be used after an implementation, or “sunset date”. The use of an SVHC after this date will be illegal unless the use has been authorised.

The total number proposed is now 15, if you consider the first batch of seven. The first seven have not been added to Annex XIV yet, but the process is moving along and six of these have recently been notified to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which is one of the last stages before inclusion in Annex XIV.

One of the original seven, Short Chain Chlorinated Paraffin’s (SCCP) is not in the list notified to the WTO as I understand that this is being considered to be proposed as a POP (Persistent Organic Pollutant) and would be totally banned as a result, so authorisation is not an option.