ECHA launches Public Classification and Labelling Inventory
Covering more than 90,000 chemical substances
More than three million submission records covering in excess of 90,000 chemical substances are now freely accessible from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) website.
The ECHA has launched the Public Classification and Labelling (C&L) Inventory with the information coming from REACH registrations and CLP notifications so far received by the Agency in Helsinki, Finland.
The ECHA says the publication of the Inventory is a key milestone set out in the CLP Regulation and represents a significant step towards transparency on the physical, health or environmental hazards of chemical substances.
The Inventory provides information on how chemical companies have self-classified chemicals and shows how some have classified the same substance differently. ECHA has not filtered or quality checked the information provided.
‘With this increased transparency, we are contributing to a more effective communication on the hazardous chemicals to workers and ultimately to consumers,’ said Geert Dancet, executive director of the ECHA.
He also encouraged Industry to use the Inventory data as the basis for discussions between companies to reach agreement on the self-classification and labelling of hazardous substances.
ECHA is planning to develop an IT platform to facilitate communication among notifiers of chemicals so that they can discuss reasons for differences and, where appropriate, agree on a uniform classification.
The Public C&L Inventory is the largest database of self-classified substances available globally. A number of options are available for searching the Inventory, based on the substance identity and its classification.
The ECHA says it will continually improve the search functions to enhance access to the information.
