Non-food legislation - September 2019

Packaging for pharmaceuticals
The FDA has published a guidance on what information should be included to support child-resistant packaging statements in labelling.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a prototype of an app that may potentially prescribe the optimal dose of medicine for the individual patient, as well as prevent counterfeit products. An article (abstract) about the research is published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
NIST research, published in Forensic Science International (abstract), has demonstrated a way for police to quickly and safely test whether a package contains illegal drugs without having to handle any suspicious contents directly.

Packaging for cosmetics
Cosmetics Europe has published a Packaging Advisory document (601 kB). The document aims to identify which information regarding the packaging is relevant for conducting the safety assessment of the cosmetic product, where the main concern is the possible migration of substances from the packaging into the cosmetics formulation. The document includes a Template of Packaging Supplier Statement (annex 5).

Packaging for tobacco products
The SEATCA reports that all cigarettes in Thailand will be sold in standardised, plain packaging as of 10 September 2019. The US FDA has issued a proposed rule to require new health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements.

Dangerous substances
Articles about the recently published Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been published by the EU Council, Intertek, Eurofins and SGS.
The EC has released a memorandum suggesting a postponement of the deadline for Annex VIII of Regulation 1272/2008 EC (CLP). This would mean that the deadline for implementing UFI for hazardous mixtures for consumer use would be January 2021 instead of January 2020. A public consultation about the postponement was also launched.
ECHA has updated five presentations describing how REACH and CLP affect downstream users of chemicals. ECHA has also announced a set of information requirements that will be applied within the upcoming SCIP database on articles containing substances of very high concern (SVHCs). FPF reports that ECHA has published proposals for the addition of four new chemicals to the REACH candidate list of SVHCs.
The French government (in French) has released the final version (in French, 1.44 MB) of its second national strategy on endocrine disrupting chemicals. The UK parliament has published its report ‘Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Life’ setting out the growing problem of chemical pollution. A recent article by Keller and Heckman gives a review of legislation for chemicals in the different US states.

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.