The European Parliament and the Council have reached a number of agreements on chemical safety. These relate to the legibility of labels, the simplification of registration rules for fertilisers, and the withdrawal from the market of cosmetics containing harmful substances.
This was announced by the European Parliament.
Hazardous cosmetics
MEPs have decided to halve the timeframe for withdrawing from the market cosmetics containing carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances.
If a substance is not authorised for further use, the European Commission had proposed giving manufacturers 12 months to stop placing products on the market and 24 months to completely withdraw them from sale. The European Parliament has agreed to reduce these timeframes to 6 and 12 months respectively.
Companies will be able to challenge the new classification of a compound if they intend to continue using it. They will be given 12 months to do so. If, for safety reasons, the authorities do ban the use of the substance, businesses must cease production within 3 months and ensure it is no longer available for purchase within 9 months.
The European Parliament did not approve the European Commission’s proposal to lift such restrictions on cosmetics that are toxic if inhaled or swallowed.
Furthermore, the requirement to notify the European Commission in advance of the placing on the market of cosmetic products containing nanomaterials has been retained.
Labeling features
To ensure more flexible rules for the classification and labeling of chemicals, simplification of the CLP regulation has been agreed.
Labeling elements must be legible for consumers. If a product is available for general sale, the text height on the label should be at least 1.2 mm. For containers with a volume of up to 125 ml, the minimum height is slightly lower-0.9 mm.
For extremely small containers up to 10 ml, European parliamentarians allowed the required information to be provided on a digital label. Although this change does not affect hazard pictograms, it should help reduce packaging costs for manufacturers.
Simplifications for fertilizers
To support European farmers, EU legislators agreed to simplify the regulation of products and fertilizers under Regulation 2019/1009, but only if this does not threaten human health and the environment.
Thus, the proposal by the European Commission to replace extended REACH registration with standard registration was rejected. This concerns substances considered especially harmful according to harmonized classification.
EcoPolitic previously reported that the European Union intends to accelerate the phase-out of animal testing for chemicals. Such experiments are planned to be discontinued in 15 sectors of the chemical industry-from pharmaceuticals to pesticides.
