REACH regulations will be inspected by EU ECHA

EU ECHA will conduct a large number of spot checks on consumer goods to check compliance with REACH regulations.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Law Enforcement Forum decided to make consumer goods the main focus of the 10th Joint Enforcement Action (REF-10) in 2022, focusing on the compliance of its REACH regulations and POP regulations on hazardous substances. REF-10 will launch enforcement action in 2022 and issue a work report in 2023.

The main purpose of this round of law enforcement is to check whether consumer goods meet the restrictions of the following two types of restricted substances:

(1) substances restricted by REACH regulations.

Annex XVII list of restricted substances currently contains 75 substances, of which the newly listed hazardous substances will also be included in this sampling, such as:

Item 72-CMR substances in textiles.

Item 70-Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) in washable cosmetics.

Item 66-Bisphenol An in thermal paper.

(2) substances controlled by POPs regulations.

At present, 28 items of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are included in the list of prohibited substances in Annex I of the POP regulations ((EU) 2019 to 1021), while there are no substances in the list of restricted substances in Annex II. This round of enforcement will conduct spot checks on compliance with the provisions of POPs regulations in consumer goods, such as:

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts and related compounds in waterproof textiles or snow wax.

Short-chain chlorinated paraffin (SCCPs) in soft plastic articles.

The list of restrictions on REACH and POP regulations covered by the REF-10 project is still under preparation and enforcement will not be limited to the substances and restrictions listed herein. At the same time, in order to better promote the joint enforcement of chemical regulations, law enforcement agencies will also work with the competent authorities of the EU Toy Directive (TSD) and RoHS Directive to inspect the relevant restricted substances in toys and electrical and electronic products.

In addition, the action will not only check the compliance of restricted substances, but also check whether companies are fulfilling their SVHC information transmission obligations in their supply chains.