What is REACH? REACH Competence Centre. Funded by SME Development Fund. Organized by. 工業貿易處 Trade and Industry Department

Transcription

1 Funded by SME Development Fund Organized by 工業貿易處 Trade and Industry Department REACH Competence Centre In the advent of REACH, a regime of regulations to rein in control for chemical substances is anticipated. With an aim to well acquaint stakeholders of textile and clothing industry with the new regulations, and more importantly, to smooth their adaptations toward full compliance to the new regime, Textile Council of Hong Kong takes the initiatives to formulate a One-Stop-Shop-Centre, precisely REACH Competence Centre. With the support of SME Development Fund from Trade and Industry Department, Textile Council of Hong Kong made effort with Clothing Industry Training Authority and Global Sustainable Management (gsm), a Germany textile consultancy firm, to establish the Centre. The Centre targets to provide the following services: Foster the awareness on REACH and its impacts on textiles and clothing industries Develop strategic measures toward the full compliance to REACH in a cost-effective way Conduct risk assessment and hazard evaluation In the meantime, the development of the relevant industry guides and documents is underway and they will be housed in REACH Competence Centre which soon starts operation in spring What is REACH? R EACH is an abbreviation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restr iction of Chemicals. It is a new set of regulations effective on 1 June 2007 to streamline and improve the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU). REACH aims to better protect human health and the environment from the manufacturing, import and use of chemicals. Under REACH Regulation, industry takes greater responsibility to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. REACH provisions will be phased-in over 11 years (from 2007 to 2018). Any opinion, finding, conclusion or recommendation expresses in this material does not reflect the view of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Trade and Industry Department or the Vetting Committee of the SME Development Fund. Page. 1

2 Registration Pre-Registration period Registration deadline for importing manufacturing 1,000 tonnes SVHC per year Registration deadline for importing manufacturing 100-1,000 tonnes SVHC per year Registration deadline for importingmanufacturing tonnes SVHC per year REACH entered into force 1 June June Nov May May Dec Diagram 1: REACH implementation timeline Importers and manufacturers of substance in quantities as indicated in Diagram 1 must register their substance(s) with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) 1 according to the timeline. By May 2018, it will be restricted to manufacture or import any unregistered substances in quantities totalling over 1 to 100 tonnes per year per producer or importer 2. Notification I n addition, there is a threshold concentration restriction for any article importing to EU. Starting from 1 June 2011, the importer or producer of article shall notify the ECHA if a Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) is present in the article in quantities totaling over 1 tonne per year per company and the SVHC is present at more than 0.1% by weight in the article Official Journal of European Union EC P DEC 2006 Page. 2

3 Candidate list of SVHC EC no.3 CAS no.4 4,4'- Diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA) Alkanes, C10-13, chloro (Short Chain Chlorinated Paraffins) Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) Bis(tributyltin)oxide (TBTO) Diarsenic pentaoxide Disodium tetraborate Substance Lead hydrogen arsenate Triethyl arsenate Aluminosilicate Refractory Ceramic Fibres Anthracene oil, anthracene-low Anthracene oil, anthracene paste, anthracene fraction Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) Lead chromate molybdate sulphate red (C.I. Pigment Red 104) Bis (2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) Anthracene Sodium dichromate Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) Potassium dichromate Potassium chromate (Musk xylene) 5-tert-butyl-2,4,6-trinitro-m-xylene Zirconia Aluminosilicate Refractory Ceramic Fibres Pitch, coal tar, high temp Cobalt dichloride Diarsenic trioxide Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) Trichloroethylene 2,4-Dinitrotoluene Tetraboron disodium heptaoxide, hydrate Anthracene oil, anthracene paste Anthracene oil, anthracene paste,distn. lights Lead chromate Lead sulfochromate yellow (C.I. Pigment Yellow 34) Tris(2-chloroethyl)phosphate Acrylamide Boric acid Anthracene oil Ammonium dichromate Sodium chromate Table 1: List of SVHC (as of 27 July 2010)5 SVHC is a chemical substance that poses serious threat to human health or the environment. It can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction and persistently bioaccumulative. As of 27 July 2010, the SVHC candidate list comprises only 38 substances (Table 1). However, the candidate list is updated on an ad-hoc basis and it is expected that the number of SVHC candidates will increase to hundreds in coming two to three years. Textile and clothing industrialists must keep a wary eye on this issue. Any supplier or importer of an article containing SVHC in a concentration above 0.1% by weight shall provide sufficient information to its recipient or customer on safe use and disposal of the article. Failure in this respect will be subject to infringement of REACH regulation. 3. European Commission number: a 7 digit code that is assigned to chemical substances those are commercially available within the EU. 4. CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): a division of the American Chemical Society who assigns these identifiers to every chemical that has been described in literature. 5. ECHA REACH candidate list: Page. 3

4 Other restricted chemicals Besides the SVHC candidate list, many other chemicals are also restricted under REACH 6. Benzene over 5mgkg or 0.1 % mass; Cadmium over 0.01% mass 7 ; Nickel of release rate higher than 0.2 µgcm2week; Chloroform over 0.1% mass; Azocolorants 8 over 30 mgkg or 0.1% mass 9 ; and phthalates DINP, DIDP and DNOP over 0.1% mass in any child product and many more 10. A complete EU official journal on REACH can be downloaded on the European Union Law website, under the Legislation (L) Series, numbered 396, year On the other hand, articles with excess amount (>0.1 mgkg of product) of Dimethylformamide 11 (DMF) are subject to detention at the border. (Please see page 5 for Recalled Cases) Penalty T he importers or suppliers are considered to be non-compliant and has infringed the REACH provisions, if they fail to register; fail to notify ECHA in advance; not be able to provide sufficient information to their customers or cannot disclose the presence of SVHC in products within 45 days upon request from consumers. The importer or supplier is subject to the following penalty: EU Member State Austria Cyprus Germany Hungary 38,000 80,000 and 4 years of prison Sentenced to a fine. 70,427 Italy Lithuania Netherlands 6 Portugal Slovakia Spain Max. Penalty EU Member State Bulgaria France Greece Ireland Max. Penalty 51,129 75,000 and 2 years of prison 35,000 3,000,000 orand 2 years of prison 150,000 or 3 months of prison Liechtenstein 131,863 orand 6 months of prison 4,350 Luxembourg 50,000 orand 3 years of prison 740,000 orand Poland 4,761,905 orand years of prison 2 years of prison 2,500,000 Romania 11,889 99,581 Slovenia 60,000 1,200,000 UK Unlimited fine orand 2 years of prison. Table 2: Maximum penalty for infringement of REACH provisions (as of 27 July 2010)12 6 Official Journal of European Union EC Annex XVII 18 DEC Conditions of restriction apply, EC Annex XVII P DEC Official Journal of European Union EC Appendix 8 and 9 18 DEC Conditions of restriction apply, EC Annex XVII P DEC Conditions of restriction apply, EC Annex XVII P DEC Official Journal of European Union EC 13 MAR Milieu Environmental Law and Policy: Report on penalties applicable for infringement of the provisions of the REACH Regulation in the Member States MAR 2010 Page. 4

5 Recalled Cases T he European Commissions has established a rapid alert system called RAPEX 13, which is a database containing all dangerous consumer products reported in EU market, with the exception of food, pharmaceutical and medical devices. The following two cases are recently reported by RAPEX on textile and clothing products. Ref (09-Jul-2010) Report Country Product Danger Measures adopted Product: Fleece blanket Chemical Brand: KiK Typenumber of model: Fleece The product poses blanket 130 x 170 cm, 100% a chemical risk Polyester, 2.99 euro, Season: because it contains 109, product group 922, order azo-dyes which may number , black. release carcinogenic Vo l u n t a r y r e c a l l Description: Blanket made amines. The black Germany f r o m b l a c k f l e e c e, e d g e from consumers by thread releases 51.5 the distributor. hemmed with black thread, mgkg of 4-amino paper binding label. azobenzene. Country of origin: China The product does not comply with the REACH Regulation (18-Jun-2010) Product: Infant's skirt Brand: MaximarMartis Typenumber of model: ER01; EAN The product poses Description: Infant's skirt a chemical risk due m a d e o f c o t t o n ( % ) to nickel migration coloured pink with needled from metal parts flowers on the right bottom, (measured amount: Voluntary corrective t w o p o c ke t s o n r e a r a n d 1.08 and 1.83 mg Poland actions taken by big metal buttons. For more cm²week). the importer. details, please see the picture. Country of origin: China The product does not comply with the REACH Regulation Table 3: Cases Reported in RAPEX (Noon 27-Jul-2010) (Noon 27-Jul-2010) Page. 5