By June 1st 2015 most hazardous chemical products being placed on the market will need to be reclassified and relabelled in accordance with the new Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures Regulation 1272/2008 (CLP). This change will have far reaching consequences for all those who supply and use hazardous chemicals in Ireland, throughout the EU and indeed worldwide.
Any business that imports, formulates or uses chemical mixtures will be affected by this deadline, they should be aware of it and be ready for the change. These businesses will need to reclassify and relabel all hazardous mixtures that they place on the market by the 1st June 2015. For those mixtures that are already on the market, on the 1st June 2015, there is derogation from re-labelling and repackaging until 1st June 2017. For those using chemicals there needs to be awareness about the changing labels and what the changes will mean for them.
CLP introduces new pictograms, signal word, hazard and precautionary statements to the label. Certain chemical products such as medicines and cosmetics, placed on the market ‘in the finished state and intended for the final user’, are outside the scope of CLP. However, many of the hazardous ingredients that go into making these products are not excluded from CLP and may need to be reclassified, relabelled and repackaged.
The Health and Safety Authority is participating in an EU wide awareness raising campaign to alert Irish companies of these changes. As part of this campaign, the HSA is also offering assistance to help compliance with the upcoming deadline and encourages those affected to contact its Chemicals Helpdesk email (chemicals@hsa.ie) for assistance.
Cuttle Consulting have participated on one of the NISO/HSA Seminars and strongly recommends that all businesses involved in the chemical industry get fully briefed on the legal requirements facing them on 1st June 2015.