The future of EU chemicals regulation

Ciara Dempsey Regulatory Affairs Manager

In October 2020, as part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission published its “Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a toxicfree environment” (also known as the ‘CSS’). This is a highly ambitious strategy which will result in significant changes to the way chemicals are regulated in the EU. Substantial changes are expected to cornerstone regulations, REACH and CLP and in specific areas such as the regulation of food contact materials.

The CSS aims to “ensure better protection of human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals” and “boost innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals”. However, the strategy has come under criticism from industry associations and others for the shift towards a much more hazard-based approach to regulation rather than riskbased. One important aspect of the CSS is the introduction of the concept of ‘essentiality’. i.e. that the ‘most harmful’ chemicals will only be allowed to be used where the use is deemed essential, regardless of whether the potential for exposure, and therefore risk, is low. There are concerns that this will lead to a further reduced pool of raw materials from which the coatings industry can manufacture products. The concept has been a topic of debate and demonstrating the ‘essentiality’ of coatings is a critical activity for our industry.

The concept of grouping chemicals is also proposed, meaning that groups of chemicals may be subject to a generic risk assessment. Restrictions of groups of substances are therefore likely, regardless of the different hazard potentials of substances within the group. Other significant changes include the introduction of some new hazard classification criteria, most notably for endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). This move has raised some eyebrows, as it would normally be expected that new classification criteria would be implemented via UN GHS, rather than unilaterally by one region.

The UK is also developing a chemicals strategy, which is expected to be published in 2022. It is not yet known how closely the UK strategy may follow the EU CSS. The UK Government has been keen to emphasize that they will be making independent decisions, and in the past as a Member State of the EU has often favoured a more riskbased approach. It therefore seems possible that there will be some significant differences between the UK and EU strategies, which would of course lead to greater divergence between the two, and probably much more quickly than many of us would have originally expected. The BCF will continue to work closely with CEPE with respect to the European CSS and will of course also be closely monitoring the developments in terms of the UK strategy.