The European Chemicals Agency has been working in collaboration with de OECD, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and other organisations from the United States and Canada to develop alternative methods to assess chemical hazards and to protect people from skin sensitisation while prompting non animal test methods.

The result of this collaboration is the Guideline on Defined Approaches for Skin Sensinitation, adopted on June 14, 2021.

The European Commission has published REGULATION (EU) 2021/1297 of 4 August 2021 amending Annex XVII to REACH restricting perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) containing 9 to 14 carbon atoms in the chain (C9-C14 PFCAs), their salts and substances from 23 February 2023 onwards, although some uses have been granted longer transition periods.

The decision responds to a restriction proposal submitted by German and Swedish authorities in 2017.

The classification and labelling requirements for titanium dioxide (TiO2) changed in February 2020 following Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2017, effective October 1, 2021. To help companies comply with the new regulations, the European Chemicals Agency has published a new guide about the classification, labelling and packaging of TiO2.

Since 1969, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation has been committed to the fight against poverty and the development of one of the most impoverished areas of India, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They have developed actions to raise awareness of hygiene habits, to combat discrimination against women, to help migrants, to promote inclusive education, etc.

However, as it happened in the rest of the world, the public health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic has been a great challenge for all its material and human resources, which have worked tirelessly to alleviate its consequences.

The new Resolution 773 of 2021 of the Ministry of Labor defines the actions that employers must implement in their companies in terms of classification and hazard communication for chemical hazards, under the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals GHS- sixth revised edition(2015), which Colombia adopted through Decree 1496 from 2018 in order to “turn it into a tool for the prevention of the potential effects that hazardous chemicals may have on human health and the environment. ”

The implementation of the GHS by companies in the workplace also represents a promotion and prevention action that was established as mandatory by the Article 9 of Law 1562 of 2012 on the Occupational Health and Occupational Health System.

Last month, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) added 8 new hazardous chemicals to the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC), which now contains a total of 219 chemicals.

Some of them are used in consumer products, such as cosmetics, scented articles, rubber and textiles, and some others are used, for example, as solvents or flame retardants in the manufacture of plastic products. Most of them were added to the Candidate List due to their hazards to people, being toxic for reproduction, carcinogenic, respiratory sensitizers or endocrine disruptors.