EU Chemicals Agency Finds Companies not Complying with Dangerous Substances Laws

Written By: Atanu Das on Monday, December 30, 2019

The ECHA report, published in November looked at over 400 companies and almost 700 consumer products in 15 member countries. The companies ranged from rubber, electronic equipment and wholesale and retail trade categories.

Articles or products studied included clothing, shoes and home textiles, electrical or electronic articles, or articles used in construction or interior design such as flooring or plastic furniture. The substances identified most frequently were phthalates, mostly DEHP, a reprotoxic substance and endocrine disruptor. Other substances of very high concern, such as lead, cadmium, bisphenol A or brominated flame retardants were also identified. These were found in about 12% or 84 of the products studied.

EU REACH regulations defines the substances of very high concern (SVHC) and lists 201 SVHCs which must be notified to end users and consumers. This study shows that many companies are still lax in compliance with these requirements and the agencies are also not actively prosecuting them as well.

For more information on the study, download it here