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Chemicals Coffee Time Monthly, January 2026

Posted
Updated
ByEmma

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year! Apologies for the delay in sending this edition of Chemicals Coffee Time Monthly out, I’ve been dealing with a family crisis.

We’ll start with some news on the AI front.

AI – automated idiocy

Incorrect Transport of Dangerous Goods information

A sales person asked ChatGPT to produce an ADR symbol, as spotted by Heli Hörkkö here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/helihorkko_chemfish-hazardous-chemical-logistics-capabilities-activity-7416064485473382400-ZEq0/

And, as you can see from the image at the top of this page, it is completely incorrect.

As Jim Powell President, TDG LLC, notes: Next time a student asks me, “Hey Jim, what’s the yellow label with the flaming meteor striking the Earth symbol all about?”  I’ll be prepared.

Dangerous fire safety advice – do not follow

I cannot quite believe how dangerous this latest example is. In fact I’m beginning to think that AI searches and chemical regulations are like oil and water, they don’t mix!

This is from AI, which instructs people to stand DOWNWIND of fumes/ smoke/ fire in a vehicle fire – the very opposite of what they should do. If it were taken seriously, it could kill people. More details from Jim Powell here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tdgpowell_liar-liar-set-your-ai-on-fire-it-would-activity-7417722140059262977-RzUZ/

I am not against AI per se, and I know that used carefully it can be an excellent tool, (check out the global tracker for regulations from Steven Brennan and his team at Foresight: https://www.useforesight.io/live), but some of these examples are really worrying!

Hearing from the HSE, DEFRA and the UK

Product safety recall for kid’s craft project containing asbestos(!)

Ali Potts of WSP writes – I happened to spot this recently and it’s pretty unusual…https://www.gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls/product-recall-hobbycraft-giant-box-of-craft-2601-0364 kids craft kit recalled due to Asbestos! I like to take a look at the recalls – particularly if they are due to chemical risk, but I can’t remember seeing one like this before.

Many thanks to Ali, and if you have bought a children’s craft project kit recently from Hobbycraft, please check this article out.

MCL Technical Report published – a form of Talc

The HSE have just published a single report, which gives their technical opinion on a single chemical classification. As usual, this doesn’t mean the Minister will sign it off, but oes give an indication of what the HSE thinks should happen.

The updated list can be downloaded as an excel file from this webpage: https://www.hse.gov.uk/chemical-classification/classification/publication-template.htm.

So what is this mystery substance? well, it’s “Talc, (not containing asbestos or asbestiform fibres)”, and, as you can see from the report itself, here https://www.hse.gov.uk/chemical-classification/assets/docs/mcl-abel-1028.pdf , the HSE have a different opinion to the RAC in the EU.

The EU and HSE agree that Talc which doesn’t contain asbestos or asbestiform fibres should be classified as STOT RE 1; H372 (Causes damage to the lungs through prolonged or repeated exposure if inhaled).

But the HSE does not agree with the EU’s classification of this type of Talc as being Carc. 1B; H350, and state: “The Agency does not consider the available data are sufficient to support classification for carcinogenicity”.

Regular readers of the newsletter may remember that this is also my opinion, as it seems to me that Talc is most likely to be carcinogenic when it contains asbestos, and that Talc without asbestos or asbestiform materials, is likely to be innocent, like Titanium Dioxide has now been demonstrated to be (on the basis of our current knowledge).

This entire fiasco stems from a rather suspect piece of work carried out on behalf of IARC by ANSES (the French Competent Authority), which included Talc (only carcinogenic is containing asbestos or similar silicates), tItanium dioxide (innocent) and Carbon Black (pure version made by burning methane in the “channel black” process is likely to be innocent, complex version made by burning tyres and municipal rubbish likely to be carcinogenic).

Keeping an Eye on ECHA and the EU

Important ECHA website changes over the holiday period

As we discovered during the Christmas break, the REACH dossiers and Classification & Labelling inventory have now been removed from the main ECHA website, and are only accessible via ECHA Chem https://chem.echa.europa.eu/.

This means that we no longer have C&L information available in table format, to allow for easy comparison, and instead have to view each individual entry. The Brief Profile, which was very handy as it summarised test data for substances, has been removed completely, and there is no equivalent version on ECHA Chem.

Data users have got to do more work to review data than in the past, and this may make it harder for them to access the information they need, leading to more errors. The impression I get is that ECHA are more bothered about making their websites easy for them to upload data to, and don’t really care about the convenience of their end users.

A summary of the changes when a substance goes onto the Candidate List (SVHC)

Many thanks to Luca Livraghi for this summary of the duties for substances placedon the Candidate List (aka Substances of Very High Concern, SVHCs), using n-hexane as an example: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/luca-livraghi-b01355109_reach-svhc-chemicalsafety-activity-7419406116964450304-QRXN

Checklist of EU CLP changes which are coming in

Louise Witter and her team at Chemical Legislation Professionals have issued a very good checklist on the EU-CLP changes which are coming into force soon: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chemical-legislation-professionals-ltd_eu-clp-changes-activity-7416815562317762560-Ms-B

Cosmetics changes in the EU

A useful article from Steven Brennan of Foresight on how CMRs are handled in the EU:

As Steven’s website says, this article is “AI-drafted, expert reviewed”, so it’s advisable to read the regulations or proposals yourself, but they’re a great starting point.

Around the World

China GHS

Important news (if it’s correct) that China is fast-tracking updates to become GHS Rev 11 compliant, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yogita-yadav-9bb041195_chinaghs-ghsrev11-chemicalregulations-activity-7412879488428175360-8Azi

Switzerland PCN

Did you know that Switzerland has its own form of PCN? it has just come into full effect at the start of the year, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/luca-livraghi-b01355109_pcn-chemicalcompliance-switzerland-activity-7417192452362739712-Ukhy

Process Safety Corner

Incidents

Insights

A calendar showing a year of Process Safety Incidents from the University of Limerick https://www.epsc.be/page/566, many thanks to the author Peter Draven https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peter-davern-b3393189_2026-calendar-of-process-safety-incident-ugcPost-7404887861549776896-wEXu.

Beware of “value engineering”, that is cutting costs on plant construction without realising there are hidden engineering and safety costs when you move away from the standards specified in the design: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/james-riggins-494003173_industrialengineering-watertreatment-activity-7412560743964848128-A2aY

And, as an example of where cost-cutting can go wrong, the difference the correct pump seal makes https://www.linkedin.com/posts/james-riggins-494003173_maintenance-industrialengineering-activity-7414030654289444865-PMVQ

Infographic of the Month

Did you know that optical isomers can produce different flavour compounds? Spearmint is from R-carvone, and caraway is from S-carvone, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simon-maechling_spearmint-and-caraway-seeds-smell-completely-activity-7414693729581654016-nomv

The Weekend Watch/ Read

As it’s New Year, we’re often making plans and taking decisions for the year ahead. So I thought you might this interesting discussion on one way decisions, two way decisions and the need for different levels of proof for each type from Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy https://youtu.be/J6XgR6WsqV4?t=2546

The Weekend Recipe

Here’s a great recipe for a South African dish called Bobotie, from Royal Recipes (full info here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bobotie_951010 .

Topping ingredients

  • Topping
  • 400ml/14fl oz full-fat milk
  • 50g/1¾oz fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 4 large free-range eggs, beaten

Main ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1kg/2lb 4oz lamb mince
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 tbsp madras curry paste
  • 250ml/9fl oz lamb stock (Oxo do an excellent lamb stock cube with mint)
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsp mango chutney
  • 50g/1¾oz raisins
  • 50g/1¾oz dried apricots, chopped
  • 1 tbsp cider vinegar

Method

Set your oven to Gas mark 4. Grease a large glass oven-proof dish with the butter.

Make the topping: in a large jug, break the eggs and beat them with a fork or small whisk, then add in the milk and stir together well. Then add the crumbs into this, and leave on one side (the fridge) to soak together.

Make the main part of the bobotie: fry off the lamb mince in the olive oil, in small batches, and place in a bowl on one side (keep warm if you can). Then fry the onions until browned (about 10 mins), add the garlic and fry briefly, before adding the madras paste and stirring to release the spices for about a minute. Then add the browned mince back into the pan, and stir well to coat the onions and mince with the paste. Add in the lamb stock, and cook for around 10 minutes so the mince is completely cooked, and most of the liquid has evaporated. Then take the pan off the heat and stir in all the other ingredients.

Take the pan contents and spoon into the pre-greased ovenproof dish, and flatten down with the back of a spoon. Pour over the milk/eggs/breadcrumbs mix, place on a large baking tray (in case of spills), and pop in the middle of your oven.

Bake for around 35 minutes, or until golden-brown on top – the topping should be just set, with a slight wobble, so don’t increase the heat otherwise you may get a brown topping but the base isn’t hot enough.

Findings: we like this dish very much, and if you can’t get apricots you can increase the raisins, but it’s actually better with the tang of apricot. When I made this a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t have madras paste, only a mild curry paste, and it wasn’t as tangy as usual, so with hindsight I should have added a bit of extra curry powder or chilli. There isn’t a lot of madras paste for the volume of ingredients, and you need to be able to taste the curry flavour against the sweetness of the fruit. But it was still good to eat with the milder paste.

Free from notes – if you use lactose free milk (as we did), and gluten free breadcrumbs (we used normal bread), then this is both lactose and gluten free (but obviously not vegetarian).

Reasons to be Cheerful

In January we had a selection of videos of Rowan Atkinson monologues:

Many thanks for reading this LinkedIn newsletter, and many thanks to everyone who has contributed, through sending in links, queries, comments etc. If you have anything you’d like to share, please email me or send a DM, and I’ll do my best to include it in the next Chemicals Coffee Time Monthly.

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Look forward to chatting to you in late February or early March.

Kind regards,

Janet

Janet Greenwood, TT Environmental Ltd

PS We’re happy for you to use this content in your own social media or newsletters, as long as you credit Chemicals Coffee Time. Please note that this newsletter highlights issues which may be of interest to your business, but is not intended as specific advice. We always recommend that you should do your own research. If you need consultancy help, please book a Quick Consultancy Call here: (https://chemicalscoffeetime.co.uk/quick-consultancy-calls/), or Quick Consultancy Email here: https://chemicalscoffeetime.co.uk/quick-consultancy-emails/

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