EU chemicals watchdog aims to improve worker safety

As part of a drive to improve employee safety, the EU has announced that its chemicals watchdog is to publish an inventory containing more than 20,000 hazardous chemicals.

Currently, all chemicals which have been declared hazardous by manufacturers and importers must be classified, labelled and packaged (CLP) in a certain way before being placed onto the market. This CLP regulation have been in place since 20 January 2009.

Now, executive director of the European Chemicals Agency, (ECHA) Geert Dancet, says that the new inventory will 'significantly improve safety by providing up-to-date information on all the hazardous substances that are on the EU market today.'

The details used in the inventory will be taken from information supplied by manufacturers and importers under the CLP regulation. More than 3.1 million pieces of information regarding 24,529 chemical substances in use within the EU have already been submitted to the inventory.

The new classification and labelling database should be ready to use by May of this year. Janez Potocnik, EU Environment Commissioner said that the inventory will 'improve safety for all those handling chemicals and will enable downstream users and consumers to select less hazardous chemicals for their needs.'