201008REACH-F REACH Competence Centre In the advent of REACH, a regime of regulations to rein in control for chemical substances is anticipated. With an aim to well acquaint stakeholders of textile and clothing industry with the new regulations, and more importantly, to smooth their adaptations toward full compliance to the new regime, Textile Council of Hong Kong takes the initiatives to formulate a One-Stop-Shop-Centre, precisely REACH Competence Centre. With the support of SME Development Fund from Trade and Industry Department, Textile Council of Hong Kong made effort with Clothing Industry Training Authority and Global Sustainable Management (gsm), a Germany textile consultancy firm, to establish the Centre. The Centre targets to provide the following services: • Foster the awareness on REACH and its impacts on textiles and clothing industries • Develop strategic measures toward the full compliance to REACH in a cost-effective way • Conduct risk assessment and hazard evaluation In the meantime, the development of the relevant industry guides and documents is underway and they will be housed in REACH Competence Centre which soon starts operation in spring 2011. What is REACH? R EACH is an abbreviation for “Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals ”. It is a new set of regulations effective on 1 June 2007 to streamline and improve the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU). REACH aims to better protect human health and the environment from the manufacturing, import and use of chemicals. Under REACH Regulation, industry takes greater responsibility to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. REACH provisions will be phased-in over 11 years (from 2007 to 2018). Page. 1 工業貿易處 Trade and Industry Department Funded by SME Development Fund Organized by Any opinion, finding, conclusion or recommendation expresses in this material does not reflect the view of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Trade and Industry Department or the Vetting Committee of the SME Development Fund.
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REACH Competence CentreIn the advent of REACH, a regime of regulations to rein in control for chemical substances is anticipated. With an aim to well acquaint stakeholders of textile and clothing industry with the new regulations, and more importantly, to smooth their adaptations toward full compliance to the new regime, Textile Council of Hong Kong takes the initiatives to formulate a One-Stop-Shop-Centre, precisely REACH Competence Centre.
With the support of SME Development Fund from Trade and Industry Department, Textile Council of Hong Kong made effort with Clothing Industry Training Authority and Global Sustainable Management (gsm), a Germany textile consultancy firm, to establish the Centre. The Centre targets to provide the following services:
• Foster the awareness on REACH and its impacts on textiles and clothing industries
• Develop strategic measures toward the full compliance to REACH in a cost-effective way
• Conduct risk assessment and hazard evaluation
In the meant ime, the deve lopment o f the re levant industry guides and documents is underway and they will be housed in REACH Competence Centre which soon starts operation in spring 2011.
What is REACH?
REACH is an abbreviation for “Registration, Evaluation, Authorizat ion and Restr ict ion of Chemicals” . It
is a new set of regulations effective on 1 June 2007 to streamline and improve the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU). REACH aims to better protect human health and the environment from the manufacturing, import and use of chemicals. Under REACH Regulation, industry takes greater responsibility to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. REACH provisions will be phased-in over 11 years (from 2007 to 2018).
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工業貿易處Trade and Industry Department
Funded by SME Development Fund Organized by
Any opinion, finding, conclusion or recommendation expresses in this material does not reflect the view of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Trade and Industry Department or the Vetting Committee of the SME Development Fund.
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1 Dec. 2008
30 Nov.2010
31 May2013
31 May 2018
1 June 2008
1 June 2007
REACH entered
into force
Pre-Registration period
Registration deadline for importing/manufacturing ≥ 1,000 tonnes SVHC per year
Registration deadline for importing/manufacturing 100 - 1,000 tonnes SVHC per year
Registration deadline for importing/manufacturing 1 - 100 tonnes SVHC per year
Importers and manufacturers of substance in quantities as indicated in Diagram 1 must register their substance(s) with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)1 according to the timeline. By May 2018, it wil l be restricted to manufacture or import any unregistered substances in quantit ies total l ing over 1 to 100 tonnes per year per producer or importer 2.
Diagram 1: REACH implementation timeline
1. http://echa.europa.eu/2. Official Journal of European Union - 2006/1907/EC P.11 – 18 DEC 2006
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Registration
Notification
In addition, there is a threshold concentration restriction for any article importing to EU. Starting from 1 June 2011, the importer or producer of article shall notify
the ECHA if a ｀Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC)´ is present in the article in quantities totaling over 1 tonne per year per company and the SVHC is present at more than 0.1% by weight in the article.
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3. European Commission number: a 7 digit code that is assigned to chemical substances those are commercially available within the EU.4. CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): a division of the American Chemical Society who assigns these identifiers to every chemical that has been described in literature.5. ECHA – REACH candidate list: http://echa.europa.eu/chem_data/authorisation_process/candidate_list_table_en.asp
SVHC is a chemical substance that poses serious threat to human health or the environment. It can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction and persistently bioaccumulative.
As of 27 July 2010, the SVHC candidate list comprises only 38 substances (Table 1). However, the candidate list is updated on an ad-hoc basis and it is expected that the number of SVHC candidates will increase to hundreds in coming two to three years. Textile and clothing industrialists must keep a wary eye on this issue. Any supplier or importer of an article containing SVHC in a concentration above 0.1% by weight shall provide sufficient information to its recipient or customer on safe use and disposal of the article. Failure in this respect will be subject to infringement of REACH regulation.
Other restricted chemicalsBesides the SVHC candidate l ist, many other chemicals are also restr icted under REACH6. Benzene over 5mg/kg or 0.1 % mass; Cadmium over 0.01% mass7; Nickel of release rate higher than 0.2 µg/cm2/week; Chloroform over 0.1% mass; Azocolorants8 over 30 mg/kg or 0.1% mass9; and phthalates DINP, DIDP and DNOP over 0.1% mass in any child product and many more10. A complete EU official journal on REACH can be downloaded on the ｀European Union Law´ website, under the Legislation (L) Series, numbered 396, year 2006.
On the o ther hand, a r t i c l es w i th excess amount (>0.1 mg/kg o f p roduc t ) o f Dimethylformamide11 (DMF) are subject to detention at the border. (Please see page 5 for Recalled Cases)
Penalty
The importers or suppliers are considered to be non-compliant and has infringed the REACH provisions, if they fail to register; fail to notify ECHA in advance; not be able
to provide sufficient information to their customers or cannot disclose the presence of SVHC in products within 45 days upon request from consumers. The importer or supplier is subject to the following penalty:
EU Member State
Max. Penalty EU Member State
Max. Penalty
Austria € 38,000 Bulgaria € 51,129Cyprus € 80,000 and 4 years of prison France € 75,000 and 2 years of prisonGermany Sentenced to a fine. Greece € 35,000Hungary € 70,427 Ireland € 3,000,000 or/and
2 years of prisonItaly € 150,000 or 3 months of prison Liechtenstein € 131,863 or/and
6 months of prisonLithuania € 4,350 Luxembourg € 50,000 or/and 3 years of prisonNetherlands € 740,000 or/and
6 years of prisonPoland € 4,761,905 or/and
2 years of prisonPortugal € 2,500,000 Romania € 11,889Slovakia € 99,581 Slovenia € 60,000Spain € 1,200,000 UK Unlimited fine or/and
2 years of prison.
Table 2: Maximum penalty for infringement of REACH provisions (as of 27 July 2010)12
6 Official Journal of European Union - 2006/1907/EC Annex XVII – 18 DEC 20067 Conditions of restriction apply, 2006/1907/EC Annex XVII P. 414 – 18 DEC 20068 Official Journal of European Union - 2006/1907/EC Appendix 8 and 9 – 18 DEC 20069 Conditions of restriction apply, 2006/1907/EC Annex XVII P. 432 – 18 DEC 200610 Conditions of restriction apply, 2006/1907/EC Annex XVII P. 395-441 – 18 DEC 200611 Official Journal of European Union - 2009/251/EC – 13 MAR 200912 Milieu Environmental Law and Policy: Report on penalties applicable for infringement of the provisions of the REACH Regulation in the Member States – MAR 2010
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Ref. Report Country Product Danger Measures adopted
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(09-Jul-2010) Germany
Product: Fleece blanketBrand: KiKType/number of model: Fleece blanket 130 x 170 cm, 100% Polyester, 2.99 euro, Season: 109, product group 922, order number 3417600, black.Description: Blanket made f rom b lack f l eece , edge hemmed with black thread, paper binding label.Country of origin: China
Chemical
The product poses a c h e m i c a l r i s k because it contains azo-dyes which may release carcinogenic amines. The black thread releases 51.5 mg/kg of 4-amino azobenzene.
The product does not comply with the REACH Regulation.
Vo luntary reca l l from consumers by the distributor.
0948/10 15
(18-Jun-2010) Poland
Product: Infant's skirtBrand: Maximar/MartisType/number of model: ER-01; EAN 5907596808599.Description: Infant's skirt made o f co t t on (100%) coloured pink with needled flowers on the right bottom, two pockets on rear and big metal buttons. For more details, please see the picture.Country of origin: China
The product poses a chemical risk due to nickel migration from metal parts (measured amount: 1.08 and 1.83 mg/cm²/week).
The product does not comply with the REACH Regulation
Voluntary corrective actions taken by the importer.
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Recalled Cases
The European Commissions has established a rapid alert system called RAPEX13, which is a database containing all dangerous consumer products reported in EU market, with the
exception of food, pharmaceutical and medical devices. The following two cases are recently reported by RAPEX on textile and clothing products.
