The Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs) now contains 209 substances that may have serious effects on people or the environment. These may be placed on the Authorisation List in the future, which means that industry would need to apply for permission to continue using them. Companies may have legal obligations when their substance is included in the Candidate List - either on its own, in mixtures or in articles.
In this update, three out of four substances are toxic to reproduction and are used in industrial processes to produce polymers, coating products and plastics, respectively. The other one is an endocrine disruptor used in consumer products, such as cosmetics.

Member states or the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) can propose substances to be identified as an SVHC. There are two substances currently proposed:
• Bis(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethyl)ether; (Tetraglyme) (EC 205-594-7, CAS 143-24-8). The substance can be used as a solvent/extraction agent in inks and toners.
Dioctyltin dilaurate, stannane, dioctyl-, bis (coco acyloxy) derivs., and any other stannane, dioctyl-, bis(fatty acyloxy) derivs. wherein C12 is the predominant carbon number of the fatty acyloxy moiety. These substances are not registered under REACH. The mono-constituent form of the substance (dioctyltin dilaurate) is used in adhesives and sealants.
If a substance is identified as an SVHC, it will be added to the Candidate List for eventual inclusion in the Authorisation List. The deadline for public consultation is 16 October 2020.

The Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs) now contains 209 substances that may have serious effects on people or the environment. These may be placed on the Authorisation List in the future, which means that industry would need to apply for permission to continue using them. Companies may have legal obligations when their substance is included in the Candidate List - either on its own, in mixtures or in articles.
In this update, three out of four substances are toxic to reproduction and are used in industrial processes to produce polymers, coating products and plastics, respectively. The other one is an endocrine disruptor used in consumer products, such as cosmetics.

In October 2019, the 14th ATP (Adaptation to Technical Progress) to the CLP regulation, which includes amendments to Annexes II, III and VI, has been adopted by the European Commission. One of the amendments includes the annex VI entry for titanium dioxide (CAS 13463-67-7) as a carcinogenic category 2 by inhalation route in powder form. This will apply to titanium dioxide in powder form containing 1% or more of particles with a diameter ≤ 10 μm. The classification also requires that mandatory product labelling and warnings will be required for mixtures containing titanium dioxide.
Titanium dioxide is widely used across multiple industries. For example, titanium dioxide is used for the manufacture of chemicals, plastic products, textile, leather or fur, wood and wood products, pulp, paper and paper products, rubber products, coatings and printing inks.
This amendment has been put forward to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers who will have a couple of months to raise any objections. If there are no objections, this amendment will come into force mid-2021.

The European Chemicals Agency has included four more substances on its REACH candidate list of Substances of Very High Concerns (SVHCs), which now contains 205 chemicals. The list comprises of substances that may have serious effects on human health or the environment and which are candidates for eventual inclusion in the Authorization list (Annex XIV).
The substances included in the Candidate List for authorisation on 16 January 2020 are:
• Diisohexyl phthalate (CAS 71850-09-4) – added due to its toxicity to reproduction
• 2-benzyl-2-dimethylamino-4'-morpholinobutyrophenone (CAS 119313-12-1) – added due to its toxicity to reproduction
• 2-methyl-1-(4-methylthiophenyl)-2-morpholinopropan-1-one (CAS 71868-10-5) – added due to its toxicity to reproduction)
• Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) and its salts – added as it causes probable serious effects to human health and the environment

A new measure signed into law on 7 Feb by Gov. Andrew Cuomo will enact new regulations on chemicals found in children’s products sold in New York state. The Child Safe Products Act creates and maintains lists of dangerous or questionable chemicals and requires manufacturers to report any substances used in their products. By 2023, the state will ban the sale of products that use certain chemicals, including asbestos, and certain flame retardants. The Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for notifying consumers of the presence of dangerous chemicals.

The trend of setting up a national inventory of chemicals – already seen in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – is moving south. The Philippines and Vietnam have existing inventories, while Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia also have plans for one.
Despite regulatory hurdles that might have caused due to disparate regulations and approaches across the region, the overall trend – if slower than other regions – is a shift in focus from primarily GHS-based requirements towards more comprehensive, risk-based chemicals management regimes that mandate registration before use.

The European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, has published a list of over 21,000 REACH-registered substances mapped in its 'chemical universe'. The substances have been divided into five pools based on the regulatory actions in place, initiated or considered for them. It also highlights that there are still thousands of substances for which possible actions have not yet been determined. The chemical universe does not indicate whether a substance’s use is safe or not – it is mainly to help authorities focus their actions. The assignment to a pool is also not permanent – substances will move from one pool to another over time when new information becomes available or priorities change.

The OECD is drawing up a set of criteria that will define a ‘sustainable’ plastic from a chemical perspective. The criteria will promote the design of products with sustainable chemistry in mind at each stage of the lifecycle of plastics – feedstocks, production and manufacturing, product use and end-of-use – as well as assessing the entire product compared to similar non-plastic products. They will also aim to discourage the use of hazardous chemicals. Some recommended tools for business decision makers will be added too. The report will be expected before the end of 2020.

Around 180 countries agreed to amend the Basel Convention at a meeting on 10th May 2019. The amendment means that plastic waste is now included within the legally-binding framework which will make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, whilst also ensuring that it’s management is safer for human health and the environment.

Other far-reaching decisions included the elimination of two toxic chemical groups, which together total about 4,000 chemicals, listed into Annex A of the Stockholm Convention, namely Dicofol and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and its salts and PFOA-related compounds.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has mapped substances on the EU market in a bid to help authorities identify, plan, monitor and regulate substances of concern. There are three groups of substances:
• 270 substances are high priority for risk management.
• 1,300 substances are high priority for data generation.
• 450 substances are low priority as sufficient regulation exists, and 500 substances have been concluded to be currently of low priority after assessment.
ECHA mentioned the focus is on the 4,700 substances registered above 100 tonnes. And more than 40% of these substances have been allocated to the above categories. The substance list will be published at the end of the year.

A set of predictions on key global chemical regulatory policy, including Asia & Australia, EU and Brexit, and Mexico, Central and South America and the Middle East. China introduced new or updated regulations in 2018, including the List of Priority Control Chemicals (First Batch), the List of Toxic Chemicals Strictly Restricted (2018), and National Guidance on Hazard Classification to the Aquatic Environment. Taiwan passed the amended Toxic Chemical Substance Control Act (TCSCA) on December 21, 2018. In South Korea, the amended Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH) came into force on 1 January 2019.

A database of over 4,000 chemical substances potentially found in plastic packaging, has been made publicly available. The Chemicals associated with Plastic Packaging (CPP) database (see CW; CRM) is the outcome of a collaboration between seven NGOs and research organisations in Europe and the US. The work has been submitted to Science of the Total Environment, and is now available, prior to peer review, as a preprint. The database is provided with the preprint as supplementary information.

In order to help consumers make informed choices for safer products while increasing pressure to substitute substances of concern, ECHA is going to establish a new database on the presence of hazardous chemicals in articles by the end of 2019 for waste treatment operators and consumers. The database will comprise information submitted by companies producing, importing or selling articles that contain Candidate List substances. Companies need to submit this information by the end of 2020. The work is based on the revised waste framework directive that entered into force in July 2018. It is part of the EU’s waste legislation package, contributing to the EU's circular economy policy.

Vermont governor Phil Scott has vetoed a bill that would have given the state's health department increased latitude to ban or restrict children's products.
Bill S103, passed by the legislature earlier this month, sought to amend the state's existing children's product reporting scheme (Act 188).

In an EU/EEA-wide project of ECHA’s Enforcement Forum, inspectors found hundreds of consumer products with illegal amounts of restricted chemicals. Every fifth toy inspected contained high levels of restricted phthalates.

The toy industry has assured consumers that risk from chemicals in secondhand plastic toys is low, following a study in the UK that revealed the presence of hazardous elements. Research carried out at the University of Plymouth tested 200 toys from schools, charity shops and family homes for the presence of: antimony; arsenic; barium; cadmium; chromium; lead; mercury; selenium; and bromine (as a proxy for brominated flame retardants).