Chemicals Coffee Time Monthly, December 2022

Dear Friend,

Happy New Year! This is our round-up of the December issues of Chemicals Coffee Time.

The big news is that there is (yet another) consultation on the EU-CLP changes proposed under the Von Der Leyen European Commission as part of the “Green Deal”.

EU-CLP proposed changes

There are two parts to the changes:

• a proposed Amending Regulation which updates the main bit of CLP itself
• and a proposed ATP which updates the Annexes

The proposal for the changes is here: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/prop… (including impact assessments) and the actual draft regulation and ATP are available here: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/clp-… .

You can comment on these proposals online here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/ha… . You will need to scroll down the page to find the open consultation, which runs from 20th December 2022 to 3rd March 2023, closing at midnight (Brussels time). And you may wish to make your feelings and opinions known, because these proposals are major.

But first, as usual, do NOT make any actual changes to any classifications etc on the basis of these proposals. They are not yet in law. They may be altered before they are brought in. Wait for the actual publication of the legal text.

The two “big issues” in the proposals are:

• the new hazard classes, which we discussed in our newsletter on 23rd December, https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/chemicals-coffee-time-23rd-december-2022/ (subscriber access only)
• and, rather more “under the radar”, but even more important, proposed label format changes, which you can find in our newsletter of 6th January 2022 (held back for publication until readers were back at work) https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/chemicals-coffee-time-6th-january-2023/ (subscriber access only)

Briefly, the most important label format changes are:

• A new minimum font size for labels

Packages not exceeding 3L – Minimum font = 8pt

Packages Greater than 3L but not exceeding 50L – Minimum font = 12pt

Packages Greater than 50L but not exceeding 500L – Minimum font = 16pt

Packages Greater than 500L – Minimum font = 20pt

• Backgrounds of label text must be white, and distance between lines must be equal or above 120% of the font size

When you try to take a label and conform to these requirements, several things become clear:

• whoever came up with these suggestions has never had to label chemical products “in anger”, as you could run out of space quite easily
• this has nothing to do with readability – different fonts come in different sizes (we predict Arial Narrow will become very popular!); and the space between the lines will not necessarily increase readability
• it’s going to be difficult to have more than 1 language on the label
• this isn’t a GHS requirement, it’s EC micromanagement

Don’t forget that you can comment here until 3rd March: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12975-Revision-of-EU-legislation-on-hazard-classification-labelling-and-packaging-of-chemicals_en (scroll down the page to find the open consultation).

Updates on Brexit legislation problems

Douglas Leech of Chemical Business Association has very kindly written to us on a couple of “hot topics”

• Inward Processing Relief and UK-REACH drafting error – Just for info I have raised the question regarding the UK REACH import definition with DEFRA and … got confirmation they are looking into it. (details on this issue here, open access : https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/newsflash…)
• Annex VIII to CLP (Poison Centres) inadvertently brought into UK law: DHSC are still not commenting on Poisons centres…. I will chase them directly as my contacts at BEIS are moving on (details here, also open access: https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/annex-vii… )

Thank you very much to Doug for raising these issues with the regulators. They affect a lot of chemical companies, probably more than the Government and the Civil Service are aware of.

Divergence notes

In other Brexit news, Alison Potts notes: “The HSE haven’t actually completed anything post-Brexit. 114 MCLs concluded but not published, 2 restrictions, 2 authorisations – nothing actually released. Those lists may as well be static.

The only thing that’s changed is the 14th and 15th ATPs going live in GB-CLP but they were already published in the first draft post-brexit! So they didn’t have to reissue anything!

I’m pretty sure we were assured that Brexit wouldn’t compromise our regulatory/scientific progress.  Failure to implement the known and assessed 114 MCLs seems like an issue to me.“

This contrasts markedly with the EU’s alterations, which include the 17th and 18th ATP to CLP (119 substances), 2 removed, 2 new and 1 altered EU restriction; 15 new SVHCs and 5 new Authorised Substances.

The fact that HSE haven’t updated any MCLs yet has also meant that now the 17th ATP is in effect in the EU (from 17th December 2022), we have differences in classification between the EU and UK, for more details see https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/gb-mcls-variation-from-eu-hcls-legal-issue/ (open access).

Reminder – new EU SDS format now in place

Regular newsletter readers will be aware that the new EU SDS format must be used in both the EU and Northern Ireland from now on, but the old EU SDS format (with local tweaks) is still in place in the UK. More details here: https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/dont-panic-about-the-new-eu-sds/ (open access).

Titanium Dioxide ruling – last date of appeal possible

Alison Hill of BILLIONS EUROPE LTD writes:

For the dates, our legal team calculated

• The ruling of the General Court will take effect at the expiry of a 2 months (and 10 days) period from the notification of the judgement to the Commission and supporting interveners – circa 10 Feb 20241.

I know there was some discussion as to the date the court officially notified the commission. – we may have further clarification before the meeting next week,

Others calculated

The time limit is 2 months and 20 days and starts as soon as the judgment has been officially received by the parties involved; according to our information, this happened yesterday, 28 November 2022, so that the appeal period ends on 7 February 2023. If no objection is lodged, the judgment will therefore be legally valid from 8 February 2023. However, we will probably only know from mid-February 2023 whether the losing party has lodged an appeal or not.

So for me the take away is don’t change labelling sds etc. until we know there is no appeal – sometime likely around mid Feb to be safe. If there is an appeal this is likely to drag out for 1-2 years.

Worrying ECHA website security problem

Did you have difficulty accessing the ECHA website on 7th or 8th December? It went down without warning, there was no maintenance message, but it was up and running by 11 am UK time. ECHA confirmed that there was a security issue which had been resolved on the morning of Thursday 8th December, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/european-chemicals-… . As a consequence, many companies were unable to upload updates to their own information over the Christmas holidays.

A new Periodic Table for your collection

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Periodic Table, and I really like this one, because as well as being in both words and pictures, it shows what each element is used for.

There’s an interactive online version here https://elements.wlonk.com/ElementsTable.htm, or if you’d like the pdf version, it’s here: The_Periodic_Table_of_the_Elements_in_Pictures.pdf.

Reminder – need for a DGSA for occasional consignors

If you occasionally consign Dangerous Goods for Transport, you now need to have a DGSA either within your organisation, or as a third party advisor.

There is a nice summary of this at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dan-lee-0b34009_do-… .

This requirement is coming out of ADR itself, so applies to countries which have adopted this standard and not just the UK, so it’s being rolled out across the EU as well. Officially, 51 countries have adopted ADR, see https://unece.org/transport/dangerous-goods/countr… .

The Weekend Recipe

Ali’s searched around for an old family favourite. It doesn’t get much table time these days at her house as it’s a little tricky to make it gluten free and dairy free without compromising a little on texture but the original used to be a big hit.

Slow cooker Butternut squash and carrot cobbler

• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 500g butternut squash (or pumpkin)
• 500g carrot (diced)
• 400g tinned tomatoes
• 250mls veg stock
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2-3 sprigs rosemary. Salt and pepper for seasoning
• 150g self raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 50g butter
• 75g blue cheese (diced)
• 4 tbsp water

Fry the onion until lightly browned. Add butternut squash, carrots tomatoes, stock, sugar, herbs and bring to the boil whilst stirring.

Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker, add the lid and cook on high for 2.5 -> 3 hours until tender.

Meanwhile, rub the butter into the flour with a pinch of salt until it forms a breadcrumb texture. Mix in the diced cheese. Stir in enough of the water to bring the mixture together in a smooth dough.

Pat the dough into a round (approx 18cm/7in) and cut into 8 equal segments.

Add the dough segments to the top of the butternut squash mixture for the last 30 minutes of cooking time until well risen and puffy.

The cobbler can be browned under a grill at the end of the cooking time if in a suitable container. You may want to add a little extra cheese for a bubbly top!

And before you email in – yes, you can get gluten free flour and lacto free cheese, but the texture of this particular dish doesn’t cope well with the substitutions. You are of course welcome to experiment with your own substitutions!

A (belated) Christmas gift

Thank you for reading our newsletter! Our Christmas gift to you is a cookbook, The 12 Eats of Christmas, which is in pdf format here: The 12 Eats of Christmas pdf version.pdf. (So it’s not just one recipe, it’s several!).

If you’d like one or more “proper” paperback copies, you can purchase them from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1999607414/ .

£1 from the sale of each printed copy goes to Dementia UK, to support the work of their Admiral Nurses, via the Work for Good platform (which Dementia UK said we have to use because of various tax rulings around businesses raising money for charity). Everyone who attended the Chemical Regulations Self Help Group Christmas Lunch in person received a privately printed copy, and we will also donate £1 for each of these copies as well.

The recipe book in physical format will only be available until 31st January 2023.

Reasons to be Cheerful

During December, we continued our theme of Harry and Paul doing Dragon’s Den, with

• “I can’t believe it’s not Custard”.
• A portable solution to all the World’s Problems”(apologies, this is in mobile format only)
•  “The app that predicts what you’re going to say next”(although the “Dead Dragon” is a bit poignant given that Hilary Devey is no longer with us) .
• And finally Alan Sugar on Dragon’s Den

Many thanks for reading this LinkedIn newsletter, and many thanks to everyone who has contributed. If you have anything you’d like to share, please email me and I’ll do my best to include it in the next newsletter.

It would be great if you’d like to subscribe to this newsletter, or even our weekly email one https://www.ghsclassificationcourses.com/home/news… (which includes access to the email archive).

Look forward to chatting to you in late January or early February

Kind regards,

Janet

Janet Greenwood, TT Environmental Ltd