ECHA Publishes Chemicals under Hazard Evaluation through 2016

Tuesday, April 01, 2014
On March 26, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published the 2014 through 2016 REACH Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP). The Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, or REACH Regulation’s updated CoRAP, lists 120 potentially hazardous chemicals the agency will review during the next three years.

Fifty-three of the listed chemicals are newly added to the list, while 67 chemicals were previously published on the CoRAP in 2013.

ECHA said in a statement that the substances of initial concern relate to risks to human health or the environment for “potential persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic

properties, suspected endocrine disruption or carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic properties in combination with wide dispersive or consumer use.”

The agency continued, “51 substances are being evaluated in 2014 by 20 Member States. In 2015 and 2016 the aim is to evaluate at least 48 and 21 substances, respectively."

The selection criteria were developed by European Union member states in association with ECHA. The criteria include:

1) Hazard information;

2) Exposure information; and

3) Manufacturing volume across all registrants.

ECHA stated that the hazard and exposure information are used in coordination to develop a risk-based approach to listing and prioritizing these chemicals. Further, ECHA stated that if a chemicals exposure was controlled, it would be a lower priority than a less hazardous substance with a large exposure.

The CoRAP will next be updated in March 2015, and new substances to be evaluated in subsequent years could be added progressively, according to ECHA.