REACHblog®

Following the United Kingdom’s (UK) departure from the European Union (EU), the government established the independent UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (UK REACH) regulation. UK REACH retains both the fundamental approach and key principles of EU REACH and is focused on ensuring that Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) continues to uphold high levels of protection for human health and the environment. Before the EU exit, about 20,000 substances...

Effective 1 January 2027, distributors will be explicitly identified as duty holders under Article 45 of the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. This clarification is intended to provide greater clarity regarding distributors’ responsibilities in supporting Poison Centre Notifications (PCN) requirements and to help address information gaps across the supply chain. The clarification is particularly relevant to companies that: Sell mixtures in a member...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will hold two webinars on September 23, 2026, and November 5, 2026, aimed at assisting micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with meeting chemical regulatory obligations. September 23, 2026, from 11:00-13:00 (Helsinki time), SME webinar: Steps for notifying to poison centres; and November 5, 2026, from 11:00-13:00 (Helsinki time), Applying for reduced fees: what SMEs need to do....

The European Unions (EU) new hazard classes are approaching the end of their transitional period for substances placed on the EU market and in the supply chain before 1 May 2025. Introduced by the EU Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/707, the new hazard classes cover the following properties: Endocrine disruption (ED) for human health and the environment; Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT); Very persistent, very bioaccumulative (vPvB); Persistent, mobile, and toxic (PMT); and...

Following the April 27, 2026, European Parliament Environmental Committee announcement that the European Commission (EC) would not proceed with a legislative proposal for a comprehensive revision of the European Union’s (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation, major reforms -- such as the registration of polymers -- appear to be off the table. Technical amendments to the REACH Annexes through comitology remain possible, however, although it...

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Designated National Authority (DNA) for Great Britain (GB), will update the GB PIC list from 28 August 2026. Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012, also known as the GB PIC list, addresses the export and import of hazardous chemicals. Updates to it ensure that decisions to list chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention's PIC procedure for certain hazardous chemicals...

The European Commission (EC) has proposed an update to the European Union’s (EU) Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation to better align with recent revisions to the United Nations’ (UN) Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The UN GHS is reviewed biannually by the UN’s Economic and Social Council’s Sub-Committee of Experts on the GHS to consider new scientific information and learnings from implementation exercises. Subsequent...

Following the United Kingdom’s (UK) exit from the European Union (EU), any legal entity based in Great Britain (GB) intending to manufacture or import a substance into England, Scotland, and/or Wales at or above one tonne per year is required to submit a registration to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for that substance. This process is typically straightforward. What should a company do, however, when a substance is identified as a New Registration of an Existing Substance (NRES) and no...

On 6 August 2026, the United Kingdom (UK) government extended the UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) transitional deadlines for any company manufacturing or importing chemicals into Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). Grandfathered substances now have one of the following deadlines depending upon the hazardous properties and tonnage band. 27 October 2029: Substances that are manufactured or imported at or above 1,000 metric...

The Council of the European Union (EU) announced on June 30, 2026, that it reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament (EP) on the management and funding of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The Council of the EU states that the new rules “will create a standalone legal framework to help ECHA manage its growing number of duties efficiently.” ECHA was established in 2007 under the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)...