EU round up: June 1 EU labelling and packaging compliance deadline

European Union (EU) paint and coatings companies and their retailers have been warned products on sale from June 1 must be classified, labelled and packaged in line with the EU classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) regulation (1272/2008). If not, they will have to be reclassified, repackaged and labelled or withdrawn from the market, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has said, noting that this deadline "marks the end of the transitional period for labelling mixtures”. In a note to chemical industries, such as the paint and coatings sector, it said: "If you still have products on your shelves with labels following the requirements of the previous legislation, you must now make sure that the products are either no longer placed on the market, or re-classified and re-labelled in accordance with CLP”. The legislation was designed to bring EU rules in line with the UN’s globally harmonised chemical classification and labelling system.

• Meanwhile, ECHA is asking chemical companies, including paint and coatings businesses and their suppliers, to dig deep for more data on their substances, to aid environmental health assessments. The EU agency is concerned about a shortage of information for 540 substances it wants assessed for potential inclusion on its list of substances of very high concern. These could eventually be subject to special authorisation controls. ECHA Executive Director Geert Dancet said: "The compliance of the data provided by companies has got to improve”.

• A draft standard has been released by CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, on assessing emissions of substances from coatings into indoor air through sampling, conditioning and testing. The standards organisation is also developing a standard on assessing tanning staining for coating materials and coating systems for exterior wood. Another standard under development will help assess the adhesion on exterior wood by coating materials and coating systems through a double-X-cut test. And a standard is being developed to lay down a wedge-cut method for determining film thickness for paints and coatings. See https://standards.cen.eu/dyn/www/f?p=204:105:0

• Finnish consumer protection authorities have ordered the withdrawal from sale of Turkey-made Tremco illbruck-branded CT040 Kontaktiliima Superb glue because it contains toluene (measured value: 0.8%), breaching EU chemical control system REACH, said a note from EU consumer alert network RAPEX. Meanwhile, Latvian consumer authorities have removed Belgium-exported SOUDAL-branded CYANOFIX 84A glue from sale because of similar concerns over toluene content (measured value: 0.17% by weight), said a RAPEX note. And German importers have withdrawn USA-made Eternal Ink branded light red tattoo ink from sale over its nickel contact, saying it breached national legislation, said RAPEX.