Non-food legislation – April 2020

REACH
Due to COVID-19, ECHA has postponed the extension of the completeness checks to chemical safety reports until October 2020. The remaining changes will take effect as of 1 May 2020, as previously communicated. ECHA has also announced that the information on the REACH registration and downstream users page and the Videos, tips and presentations for downstream users page have been updated.
The German Environment Agency (UBA) has published the third report (4.83 MB) in its series evaluating the availability and quality of the information included in REACH registration dossiers for the medium tonnage ban (100 – 1,000 metric tons per year).
The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has published its first progress report (238 kB) on the implementation of its voluntary action plan for improving the safety data within REACH registration dossiers.

POPs, PFAS, polymers and nanomaterials
POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) accumulate in blood and fatty tissues and thus, are also found in human milk. A recent report (1.63 MB) from RIVM shows that concentrations of POPs in human milk in NL have decreased during the last decades.
A study (2.33 MB) commissioned by the EU Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) found a lack of data on female fertility for nanomaterials. This lack of data results in uncertainties on the potential toxic effects of nanomaterials.
ECHA has published a new page on PFAS. You can read more about what they are, what they are used for and how they are currently regulated in the EU.
The European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) has published a report (2.63 MB) examining the applicability of standard tools, test methods, and models for polymer risk assessment.
FPF reports that UBA scientists have published a study (1.13 MB) in Environmental Pollution investigating trends of plasticiser concentrations in German freshwater environments.

Medical devices and pharmaceuticals
The EC has adopted a proposal (167 kB) to postpone the date of application of the Medical Devices Regulation by one year until 26 May 2021 to allow member states to prioritise the fight against COVID-19.
As a temporary solution to the shortage of specific packaging during the COVID-19 crisis, the NL ILT (in Dutch) is allowing 'dry' waste resulting from the care of patients infected with COVID-19 to be packaged and transported in a different way.
An IAPRI article looks at recent research on the packaging and labelling of medical and pharmaceutical products.

US: New health warnings on cigarette packages
The US FDA has issued a final rule requiring new health warnings on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements. In addition, FDA has issued the guidance Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements Small Entity Compliance Guide, which will assist small businesses in understanding and complying with the final rule.

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411.