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CD213 - A Consultative document on European Commission proposals for a European Regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, based on the UN’s globally harmonised system on the classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS)

The consultative document was revised on 24 August 2007. Please see below for details

Summary

This document seeks comments on the Regulation proposed by the European Commission (EC) to adopt the United Nations’ Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals – commonly referred to as ‘GHS’.

The UN GHS sets out internationally accepted definitions and criteria to identify the hazards of chemicals (called ‘classification’) and communicate these hazards via labels and safety data sheets.  If the same classification criteria and labelling are used to describe the hazards, the level of protection of human health and the environment becomes more consistent, transparent and comparable throughout the world.

Professional users of chemicals and consumers all over the world benefit from such harmonisation.  Industry will also save costs if they assess hazard information for their chemicals against the same criteria, and in future, this will lead to a reduction in the need for re-testing the same chemical for classification purposes.

The EC is proposing to replace the current EU classification and labelling system for hazardous chemicals with a new system based on the UN GHS. This new system will take legal effect in all Member States through the proposed Regulation and, over time, will replace the UK’s Chemical (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations (CHIP).

The Regulation will still have the general obligation to classify and label chemicals and package them safely, but will also bring in:

  • some new criteria to classify hazards;
  • some new hazard symbols (called pictograms)
  • new hazard statements and precautionary phrases to replace the current risk and safety phrases; and
  • a new duty to notify the European Chemicals Agency of classifications.

The Regulation was published at the end of June 2007, and negotiations in the European Council of Ministers started in early July and will recommence in mid-September 2007.

We would therefore appreciate any early responses to this consultation. When responding to the consultation we request that you provide supporting evidence and examples, as this will greatly assist the UK during the negotiations.

View the proposed legislation:

  • View the complete consultative document [4.8MB]
    The full consultative document is very lengthy. To make downloading easier you can access the separate parts from the links below.

    Important note: due to a technical fault, the original Annex A to CD213 did not reflect the complete proposal. Annex A was updated on 24 August 2007. CD213 provides the complete proposed Regulation and supporting technical annexes.

View the consultative document in sections:

List of related sites

This consultation closed on 2 November 2007

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Updated 2011-12-07