Enforcement Forum-38 meeting: main conclusions

Enforcement Forum-38 meeting: main conclusions

The Forum will prepare a draft revision of the SDS in 2022, carry out inspections in 2023 and report the results in 2024.

The 38th meeting of the Enforcement Forum once again ratified the poor quality of the information contained in the safety data sheets produced by companies. It already detected the problem in its REF-2 project back in 2013, when it found that 52% of the files contained deficient information, and its latest actions in Member States confirm the trend almost a decade later.

This is a major public health issue: SDSs are a basic tool for communicating safety information in the supply chain. If they are deficient, workers and professionals may not receive adequate information to use hazardous substances and mixtures safely.

For this reason, the next project of the forum, REF-11, which will be put into practice in 2023, will focus on the quality of the information that companies provide in the safety data sheets.

The inspections will verify compliance with the revised requirements of Annex II of REACH, which establishes the content and format of the safety data sheets, and will also come into force in 2023. In fact, the REF-11 project is an opportunity to monitor in real time if EU companies are fulfilling this duty.

The Forum will dedicate 2022 to design the actions, run inspections in 2023 and report in 2024.

New revised compendium of analytical methods

It is a dynamic database containing recommended analytical methods to verify compliance with the restrictions of Annex XVII of REACH. The purpose of this document is to provide a quick reference to some available analytical methods that authorities or industry can use to assess the compliance of chemical substances manufactured, used or marketed in the European market with the restrictions set out in Annex XVII of REACH.

The new revised version contains 400 methods to check 56 restriction entries of Annex XVII of REACH, including some of the most recent, such as entry 72, which restricts the use of substances classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) in textiles.

This new action of the Compliance Forum highlights the importance of always making complete and updated safety data sheets by companies. That is why the software CHEMETER has the latest new features implemented allowing SDS to be carried out according to the latest regulations in force.