European Union (EU) textile finishers and their suppliers will, from January 2020, have to check whether the chemicals they use contain nanoparticles, and if they do, assess their safety and report the results to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). This follows the release of a new EU regulation on nanoforms amending EU chemical control system REACH which will apply to all current REACH registered chemicals and any subject to new registration applications. The law has been passed after the EU concluded that nanoforms of chemicals could have different environmental health impacts than chemicals delivered in standard-sized particles.
The new regulation’s preamble says: “Manufacturers and importers should assess and where relevant, generate the necessary information and document in the chemical safety report that the risks, arising from the identified uses of the substance with nanoforms they manufacture or import, are adequately controlled.”
And, an ECHA statement adds: “The new requirements will enable both companies and authorities to systematically assess the hazardous properties of nanomaterials, how they are used safely, and what risks they may pose to our health and the environment. This information will help authorities in the EU to identify if further risk-management measures are needed.”
Widely used in finishing chemicals – for instance antibacterials – nanomaterials must be between 1 nm (nanometre) and 100 nm to be covered by this new regulation. Downstream users, such as finishers, have a key role to play here, notes the regulation preamble, because a use of nanoforms may potentially change one nanoform into another form, or generate a new nanoform. As a result: “Downstream users should provide this information up the supply chain to ensure that the use is adequately covered by the registration dossier of the manufacturer or importer, or alternatively cover the specific use in their own chemical safety report,” says the regulation.
Information could include data such as nanoforms’ rate of dissolution in water as well as in relevant biological and environmental media. Moreover, unless human exposure is unlikely, tests for toxicity should assess the impact of inhaling nanoparticles, says the regulation.
For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regcomitology/index.cfm?do=search.documentdetail&Dos_ID=15915&DS_ID=56122&Version=2
