Article 45 of the CLP Regulation ((EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures) requires each Member State to appoint a body to receive information about hazardous mixtures placed on the market.
This information is used by poison control centres to provide emergency response advice in the event of poisoning incidents. In 2017, after more than seven years of stakeholder discussions in which CEPE was a very active participant, the European Commission harmonized the information to be submitted by companies in a new Annex VIII to CLP and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) took responsibility for its implementation.
The requirements of Annex VIII are very complex and presented a number of workability issues, notably for point-of-sale mixed paints which faced the prospect of trillions of potential notifications. This represents a hugely disproportionate burden and cost for a sector with a low number of incidents (typically <1% of all calls to Poison Centres) and virtually no serious poisonings.
Advocacy by industry sectors including CEPE was successful in achieving a postponement of the first compliance deadline to 1 January 2021 (now for both consumer and professional mixtures), and – together with the DIY retail sector – CEPE is in discussions with the Commission and Member States to design further amendments to Annex VIII in 2020 that would resolve the workability problems in time for the first deadline.