In its third report on the SVHC roadmap, the Agency said that its main focus was getting more data on other substances of potential concern. To do so, it had to regroup structurally similar substances to speed up the process.
This roadmap shows the progress of the project in terms of screening and assessment of substances of concern, as well as risk management option analysis (RMOA) measures, carried out in 2016 and planned for 2017.
The progress also describes the different substance groups, the hazard properties as well as the efficiency of the tools used.
Some statistics on the substances screened by ECHA
More than 300 substances to screen in 2016
In 2016, 305 substances were added to the shortlist for this project: 288 substances were added as a result of IT-screening and 17 were added by member states.
72% of these substances required different procedures:
- 38 for a compliance check,
- 36 for the Community rolling action plan (Corap),
- 18 for the harmonised classification and labelling (CLH),
- 14 for the Risk Management Options Analysis (RMOA),
For 51 substances, an assessment on structurally similar substances is ongoing Over 150 substances were selected for a « manual » screening during 2017.
Note that between 2012 and 2016:
- 173 substances were assessed to potentially be PBT/vPvB (persistent, bioaccumulative and/or toxic)
- 73 substances had potentially Endocrine Disrupting properties,
- 116 substances were assessed as CMRs (carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic)
A slight increase in Risk Management Options Analysis
According to the report, the number of RMOAs under development, or concluded, increased slightly in 2016, with 159 substances listed since 2013. Conclusions on 67 RMOAs have been published, with around half identified as SVHCs.
Note that four RMOA were developed in 2016 for large groups of substances, which enabled to cover a large number of substances. The four groups considered were:
- perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCA) including their salts and precursors;
- perchloric acid and its salts;
- skin sensitising substances in textile articles; and
- phenol, dodecyl-, sulphurised, carbonates, calcium salts.
