HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES : ECHA RECEIVES OVER THREE MILLION NOTIFICATIONS.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has received more than three million notifications relating to the classification of chemical substances as required by Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals (CLP), which has been in force since 1 December 2010.

All companies manufacturing or importing hazardous substances were required to classify them by this date, and notify ECHA by 3 January 2011. A total of 3,114,835 notifications were submitted to the ECHA by the latter date. On the basis of the data obtained, the ECHA will publish a classifications and labelling inventory in the coming months.

The CLP regulation's main objective is to protect human health and the environment. It aligns the EU's classification system to the UN Globally Harmonised System (GHS) to ensure that the same risks are described in the same manner and mentioned in an identical way...