REACH Committee adopts PFHxA restriction
Member States adopted on 29 February a restriction on undecafluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA). The restriction bans the placing on the market of clothing, footwear, paper and cardboard used as food contact materials, mixtures for general public and cosmetic products containing 25 parts per billion or more of PFHxA and its salts or 1,000 parts per billion for all PFHxA-related substances two years after the entry into force of the Implementing Regulation (and three years for textiles other than clothing, with exemptions for PPE, medical devices and construction textiles). The restriction also bans the use of firefighting foams with PFHxA for training, testing and public fire services 18 months after the entry into force of the Regulation (except when fire services intervene at Seveso sites) and for civil aviation (including in civilian airports) five years after the entry into force of the Regulation. The draft regulation is subject to a three-month scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council before it can be formally adopted by the Commission.
Provisional agreement on PPWR introduces a restriction on the placing on the market of food contact packaging containing PFAS
The European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the proposal for a Regulation on packaging and packaging waste (which will replace the current Packaging and packaging waste Directive) on 4 March. The provisional agreement introduces a restriction on the placing on the market of food contact packaging containing PFAS. This restriction was initially proposed by the European Parliament and raised intensive debates across institutions, linked to likely overlaps with the PFAS restriction under REACH, currently under development, which should apply to food contact material and packaging for consumer articles. To avoid overlaps with the REACH restriction, the provisional agreement tasks the Commission to assess the need to amend the restriction under the Packaging and packaging waste Regulation within four years of the date of application of the Regulation.
The agreement is, however, at risk of not being endorsed, for reasons unrelated to the PFAS ban. According to ENDS Europe, the European Commission could formally block the provisional agreement found by the Parliament and Council based on concerns of “unintentional trade impacts” of a provision excluding imported plastic waste from EU recycling targets. A formal Commission objection could only be overcome by a unanimous vote in the Council, which is unlikely to happen.
Provisional agreement on Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive – follow up to last month’s regulatory watch; further details on the agreement (which has now been published) are available in the excel sheet.
ECHA consults on the draft recommendation for inclusion of Melamine in the Authorisation List
Melamine was included in the Candidate List for authorisation on 17 January 2023, after it was identified as a substance meeting the criteria of Article 57(f) of the REACH Regulation (substance which gives rise to an equivalent level of concern to other substances meeting SVHC criteria). Based on the large volume melamine manufactured and/or imported into the EU that would fall within the scope of authorization (> 10,000 t/y) and the wide dispersiveness of uses of the substance, ECHA considers that melamine receives priority among the substances on the Candidate List for inclusion in Annex XIV to the REACH Regulation. ECHA proposes to apply standard latest application date (date of inclusion in Annex XIV plus 18, 21 or 24 months) and sunset date (Latest application date + 18 months). Feedback on the draft recommendation is open until 07/05/2024.
Upcoming consultation deadlines:
- Deadline to provide feedback on the draft Regulation establishing a common data platform on chemicals: 4 April 2024
- Deadline to provide feedback on the draft Regulation on the re-attribution of scientific and technical tasks and improving cooperation among Union agencies in the area of chemicals: 3 April 2024
- Deadline to provide feedback on the draft Directive on the re-attribution of scientific and technical tasks to the European Chemicals Agency: 3 April 2024
- Deadline to provide feedback to the call for evidence aromatic brominated flame retardants: 5 April 2024
- Deadline to provide feedback on the draft recommendation for including Melamine in the Authorisation List: 7 May 2024
More information of upcoming actions related to persistent and mobile substances
For more information of regulations under the regulatory watch, as well as a Gantt Chart of the roll out, continuously updated spreadsheet and more information, please visit https://zeropm.eu/regulatory-watch/