EC Posts Comments Received on Draft Regulation to Amend REACH Annexes to Address Nanomaterials

As reported in our October 11, 2017, blog item, on October 9, 2017, the European Commission (EC) began a public consultation on a draft regulation that would amend Annexes I, III, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation to address nanoforms of substances.  Comments were due November 6, 2017.  The EC has posted the comments online.  In all, 36 comments were submitted.  The comments received fall into the following categories:

• Business associations, including the Nanotechnology Panel of the American Chemistry Council; Fachverband der chemischen Industrie (FCIO); the Association of Synthetic Amorphous Silica Producers (ASASP); the Japan Business Council in Europe (JBCE); the European Council of the Paint, Printing Ink and Artists’ Colors Industry (CEPE); the Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA); the German Paint and Printing Ink Association (VdL); the Japan Chemical Industry Association; Eurometaux; PlasticsEurope Deutschland e.V.; the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI); Verband der Mineralfarbenindustrie e.V. (VdMi); and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic);
• Public authorities, including the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES); and the Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, DG Environment — Risk Management of Chemical Substances;
• Non-governmental organizations, including Association de veille et d’information civique sur les enjeux des nanosciences et des nanotechnologies (Avicenn); the European Environmental Bureau (EEB); Eurogroup for Animals; ZERO — Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável; and the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd.;
• Company/business organizations, such as Evonik Industries AG; BASF SE; SwedNanoTech; Eckart GmbH; Merck KGaA; the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME); and Dane Color UK Ltd.;
• Environmental organizations, including GRACE GmbH; Inter-Environnement Wallonie (IEW); the European Environmental Citizens Organization for Standardization (ECOS); and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL);
• Academic/research institutions such as the Society for Institutional Analysis (sofia); and
• Other, such as Graphene Flagship; and Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (WKÖ).