EU round up – Copper-based biocides are dangerous says ECHA committee

Biocides containing copper flakes should be classified as hazardous for humans, the Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has decided.

In a recommendation on the classification and labelling of chemicals used and sold in the European Union (EU), the committee backed proposals from France that certain kinds of these biocides should be regarded as harmful under certain circumstances. Indeed, the committee decided that biocides based on copper (II) hydroxide are fatal if inhaled, cause serious eye damage and be harmful if swallowed.

Also dicopper chloride trihydroxide-based biocides are toxic if swallowed and harmful if inhaled, said the committee. It added that biocides containing copper flakes (coated with aliphatic acid) and basic copper carbonate, should be classified as harmful if swallowed and able to cause severe eye irritation. Copper sulphate pentahydrate biocides are harmful if swallowed and cause serious eye damage; tetracopper hexahydroxide sulphate and its hydrate is harmful if swallowed; Bordeaux mixture (another copper biocide); and copper (I) oxide-based biocides are harmful if inhaled and cause serious eye damage. And the committee agreed that copper thiocyanate biocides are very toxic to aquatic life.

Other EU regulatory news affecting the paints and coatings sector:

ECHA has released revised guidance on biocide controls in general, warning that all companies producing or marketing biocidal products must ensure their substance or product suppliers are added to the EU’s Article 95 list under the biocidal products regulation by this September 1 (2015). If they do not, their products cannot be sold in the EU.

Revised ECHA advice on the law explains how active substances generated in situ should be assessed and registered and how Article 95 submissions can be made by consortia. See http://echa.europa.eu/biocides-2015 and http://echa.europa.eu/guidance-documents/guidance-on-biocides-legislation?panel=vol5partB#vol5partB

• The EU agency has also released its first guidance on the re-cast prior informed consent regulation (PIC) (EU No 649/2012) that, since March 1 (2014), has controlled the export and import of certain hazardous chemicals to and from the EU.

The advice helps traders apply the regulation’s controls, which are designed to protect human health and the environment worldwide. See http://echa.europa.eu/guidance-documents/guidance-on-PIC

• Pigment cadmium sulphate has been added to ECHA’s list of candidates for identification of substances of very high concern (SVHC), which may be subject to special authorisation for use in the EU. ECHA has decided the chemical is carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction and potentially harmful to kidneys and bone.