ECHA publishes on May its Guidance on harmonised information relating to emergency health response - Annex VII to CLP

A large number of chemical products (paints, sanitary products, detergents, etc) are placed on the EU market every year, and used by both the general public and professionals on a daily basis. Chemical products are in general considered safe when you use it properly, following their instructions. However, accidents happen and, in the case of these products, an unintentional exposure to chemicals may occur. When it happens, it is commendatory to develop a mechanism that provide both medical staff and emergency professionals immediate access to relevant information on the concrete chemical product.

This is the basis for the publication of the Article 45 and Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP). CLP is based on the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and is implementing the provisions of the GHS within the EU. The objective of this regulation is to regulate the obligation to submit to Member State’s responsible bodies relevant information on hazardous mixtures placed on the market for formulating preventative and curative measures in case of accidents.

The project started in April 2017 and the working group had meetings and continuous discussions to develop the guidance text until December 2017. Finally version 1.0 of the text was consolidated and edited by ECHA and underwent the formal consultation with ECHA Partners during 2018 and beginning of 2019.

On May 2020 the The Guidance has been updated (version 3.0) to include changes following the annex’s first amendment, which entered into force on 20 January 2020. The update implements the amendment of the legal text due to Commission Delegated Regulation 2020/11 of 29 October 2019. You can consult the updated complete version in the following link:

Guidance on harmonised information relating to emergency health response - Annex VII to CLP

The European Commission is also working on a second amendment, whose publication is expected for the second half of this year, and which cover workability issues identified by certain industry sectors, such as for mixtures with high or unpredictable composition variability, which would require a disproportionate number of notifications and UFIs (Unique Formula Identifier).