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Classification and Labelling (CLP / DSD / DPD and CHiP)

CS Regulatory Ltd have prepared some 400+ CLP notifications, in our capacity as consultant or Only Representative. We are also currently involved in challenges to existing classifications of chemicals with the relevant EU member state and ECHA.

You will be familiar with the Dangerous Substances Directive [DSD] (No. 67/548/EEC) – for chemical substances and Dangerous Preparations Directive [DPD] (No. 99/45/EC) - for 'preparations' or 'mixtures' of chemical substances; you will be familiar with the orange and black hazard symbols.

From the 1st June 2015, this is now no longer applicable (although there is a two year exemption to allow for consumption of existing label stock).

The European Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on "classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures" came into force on 20 January 2009 in all EU Member States. Known by its abbreviated form, 'the CLP Regulation' or just plain 'CLP', it is Europe's adoption of the United Nations' Globally Harmonised System on the classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS) across all European Union countries. It utilises a new set of hazard pictograms:

CLP will require all manufacturers and importers, and some distributors and downstream users (formulators who mix products are considered to be downstream users), to:

• Reclassify and re-label substances by 1 December 2010. For substances already in the supply chain (i.e. placed on the market or "on the shelf"), a further 2 years transition period, until 1 December 2012.
• Reclassify and re-label mixtures (formally known as "preparations") by 1 June 2015. Similarly to substances, a further 2 years transition period, until 1 June 2017, is also available for mixtures that are already classified, packaged and labelled, and placed on the market.
• Submit a notification to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) of the classification and labelling of their substances, unless this information has already been supplied as part of a valid registration under REACH.

Every EU legal entity must notify a substance to the Classification & Labelling (C&L) Inventory established at ECHA in cases where it places the substance on the market and it either:

• Manufactures the substance and it is subject to registration under the REACH Regulation; or
• Imports the substance and it is subject to registration under the REACH Regulation; or
• Manufactures or imports the substance and it is classified as hazardous, irrespective of the quantity; or
• Imports a mixture which contains the substance that is classified as hazardous and is present above the relevant concentration limit, which results in the classification of the mixture as hazardous according to the CLP Regulation; or
• Imports an article containing substances which are subject to registration under Article 7 of the REACH Regulation.

Unlike the REACH Registration requirements, CLP applies to ALL substances and mixtures irrespective of the volume supplied. This means that notifications to ECHA will be required for substances manufactured or imported in small quantities, as well as those manufactured or imported in quantities greater than one tonne per year.

All substances notified will be listed on the Classification & Labelling (C&L) Inventory. This is a database that contains basic classification and labelling information on notified and registered substances received from manufacturers and importers. It will also contain the list of harmonised classifications (Table 3.1 of Annex VI to CLP). The Inventory has been partially established by ECHA and further work to modify and maintain the inventory is on-going. A public version of part of the Inventory is available from the ECHA website.

CS Regulatory Ltd have prepared some 400+ CLP notifications, in our capacity as consultant or Only Representative. We are also currently involved in challenges to existing classifications of chemicals with the relevant EU member state and ECHA.