Industry tries to stall hazardous chemicals database

A coalition of 40 manufacturing industry organisations has urged the European Commission to put the brakes on a new EU chemicals database requiring suppliers selling products containing hazardous substances to provide extra information about their chemical constituents.

The trade bodies, which represent business across wide sections of the economy from aerospace to battery manufacturers, wrote to commission president Ursula von der Leyen on 21 September 2020 urging her to postpone by at least one year the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) new Substances of Concern in Products (SCIP) database. The lobbyists also want ECHA to carry out a “usefulness study” to test the “feasibility, proportionality and impact” of the database on business, which they argue is unworkable and of little value.

Suppliers of products containing substances of very high concern (SVHC) are being asked to list extra information on the safe use of “complex objects” – such as electronic equipment or furniture – and “articles as such” containing SVHCs above 0.1 per cent weight for weight. However, the trade bodies want the SCIP database revised according to the outcome of the requested ECHA feasibility study.

“A proper impact study should help shape the way forward to deliver on the EU ambition for a circular European economy,” states the letter, which was signed by organisations including BusinessEurope, auto industry body ACEA and batteries group Eurobat. The letter is supported by international trade bodies including the US National Association of Manufacturers.

Industries letter to EC president Ursula von der Leyen.

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