What is ECHA?

We are surrounded by chemicals and other substances daily. Unfortunately, some of those are hazardous. Our societies must control them and ensure proper safety. It is where ECHA comes to our rescue. Also known as the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA is a European Union regulation established in 2007. In short, ECHA works towards the safe use of chemicals. Indeed, ECHA legislations mean to protect human health and the environment.

How was ECHA Created?

REACH (EU Regulation 1907/2006) is the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals. On December 18th, 2006, the European Parliament approved the REACH regulation. They intended to address the numerous challenges around the evaluation and risk management of hazardous compounds. ECHA, in charge of the regulation enforcement, got signed by the Parliament on the same day. On June 1st, 2007, the REACH regulation was official. Today, REACH is part of the various legislations supervised and enforced by ECHA.

How to Pronounce ECHA?

By the way, how do we usually pronounce ECHA? You would say it EKA or like in mECHAnical.

How does ECHA Work?

Why ECHA?

First-of-all, let us discover why the European Union found a need to create ECHA. Per Title X, article 75 of the REACH regulation, ECHA:

[…] is established for the purposes of managing and in some cases carrying out the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of this Regulation and to ensure consistency at Community level in relation to these aspect.

The regulation in question here is REACH. Nowadays, ECHA also manages other requirements.

The ECHA Internal Organization

A management board directs the Agency. Moreover, their team includes various committees under the management board. Per article 78, the board has authority over the acting executive director who oversees the different branches of ECHA. These branches are in charge, for example, of the following:

Submissions and Interactions,
Prioritization and Integration,
Hazard Assessment,
Risk Management,
Etc.

The ECHA Mission

The team of over 500 workers aims to improve chemical regulations. Here are examples of what ECHA does to protect both the people and the environment:

ECHA helps companies achieve compliance with EU legislation.
The Agency also collaborates with international organizations to raise awareness of chemical safety.
A free database is available on their website for anyone wishing to retrieve information on chemicals and their usage.
Moreover, ECHA collaborates with European governments and other stakeholders to identify hazardous chemicals and manage their risks.
Finally, by updating its legislation, the Agency encourages innovation by substituting harmful chemicals.

Legislations under the ECHA Management

ECHA has several enforced legislations and some convenient databases. Here are eight of them:

REACH (as detailed below).
Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs Regulation, following the Stockholm Convention and the Aarhus Protocol, regulates by prohibiting or restricting POPs.
The Classification, Labelling, and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. It aims to oversee the movement of substances and chemicals.
In the Biocidal Product Regulation (BPR), the concern is the use of biocidal products.
The Waste Framework Directive addressed waste management and its impacts on the environment and human health.
The Prior Informed Consent regulation (PIC) oversees the trade of banned or restricted substances, imported or exported.
The Chemical Agents Directive (CAD) and the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) are two regulations working towards the protection of the health of workers.
The Drinking Water Directive strived to prevent water from contamination hazards.

REACH, SVHCs, and Annex XVII

Adopted in 2007, REACH got enacted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the hazards that chemicals can cause. In principle, REACH applies to all chemical compounds, not just those used in industrial processes. Indeed, it covers our daily life products, such as:

electrical equipment,
paints,
cleaning agents,
furniture;
clothing;
Etc.

As a result, the REACH regulation affects most businesses serving the EU market. As an importer, user, or seller, you may want to verify that the product you buy complies with REACH to avoid complications.

REACH targets so-called Substances of Very High Concern or SVHCs. SVHCs get added every six months to complete the list. If the SVHC declaration threshold in a product component is at or above 0.1% of weight by weight, it must appear on the public SCIP database.

REACH also contains another annex affecting articles, different from the SVHCs list. This annex provides a list of restrictions on the use of hazardous substances on the European market. It is known as REACH Annex XVII of the restricted substances list.

What is an Article?

The REACH regulation defines an article as an object which during production is given a special shape, surface, or design which determines its function to a greater degree than does its chemical composition.

The idea here is to differentiate articles from substances (in pure form) and mixtures. Indeed the REACH restrictions and declarations are different depending on these three categories.

It is usually easy to define an article, like most electronic equipment.

However, certain situations are less obvious, such as a printer cartridge. Is its design more relevant for its function than the chemical composition of its content? For that reason, ECHA has provided specific guidance to define articles. Find out answers in the Guidance on requirements for substances in articles! You will discover that a printer cartridge is an article and a substance/mixture combined.

The SCIP Database

Understanding CLP

Lastly, the Classification, Labelling, and Packaging (CLP) regulations provide a high degree of health and environmental protection and the free movement of chemicals, mixes, and articles. The CLP’s primary goal is to assess whether material exhibits characteristics that lead to hazardous categorization.

Here is a step-by-step CLP classification:

The first step is to classify the in-scope substance as hazardous to improve education and communication on the matter.
From that point, the chemical gets analyzed to determine its hazard class and category from the classification criteria of CLP.
When classified, the mixture and its hazardous information get communicated through the supply chain. Labeling and Safety Data Sheets (SDS) are keys to communicating the danger of one unsafe substance to the user.

Other Tools of ECHA

Over the years, ECHA has gathered much information on various chemicals for all their legislation. The ECHA support page may bring an answer to questions one might have on a specific substance and its restrictions. Moreover, ECHA has many other tools, like:

The Interact Portal enables to team up with working groups to improve REACH;
The European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances (EUSES), a program that assists in conducting chemical risk evaluations; and
The ECHA-term page, on which you can browse any terms related to chemical terminology.

How to Create an ECHA Account

First-of-all, an ECHA account is necessary to access tools, receive notifications, or download certain documents.

There are four types of accounts:

Authority accounts dedicated to governmental agencies, for example
Industry accounts for companies
Committee account for organizations like groups of experts or associations
Personal accounts for individuals

To create an ECHA account for an industry:

Click on the basic login page.
Click on Create and ECHA account
Enter your user details and create a password
Then, you will receive an email verification link, and you will be able to log in
You will access the ECHA central dashboard page, where you can give the credentials about your legal entity, like its:

- Name
- VAT number
- General contact information
- Address
- Security question

How to Prepare an Inquiry Dossier

First, you must create an ECHA account (see above) with IUCLID.
Then, you have access to IUCLID where you can prepare an inquiry dossier.
Give your substance name to the new dossier and select REACH Inquiry from the TOC (table of contents) tab. Everything marked with a star (*) symbol s mandatory.
Select or create a new reference substance with its formula, CAS number, and other chemistry details from the identification section.
In the composition section, give details like the ingredients’ names, purity, and concentrations.
Provide Analytical information by adding the type of analysis and method, like GC/MS.
Then, give credentials about the substance production Site(s).
Finally, detail your inquiry type (such as Inquiry for phase-in Substance that has not been pre-registered) in the Information Requirements tab.

Save your dossier! If no errors are detected, then you have completed your inquiry!

How to Act in Dossier Evaluation

Once a registrant submits a substance dossier, ECHA evaluates it following these fours steps :

First, ECHA selects and assesses the prioritized substances dossiers and issues draft decisions of requested tests.
Next, ECHA communicates to the registrants with deadlines to comply.
Then, the registrants must have the tests performed within the deadlines.
Finally, ECHA verifies the tests accordingly to its decisions.

In Conclusion

Overall the ECHA is here to improve EU chemical legislation and protect human health and our environment. By complying with their legislation or helping improve the existing tools, you can help too.

Do you have any questions about ECHA-related legislation or hazardous substances? Contact Enviropass!