Compliance date for Poison Centre Notifications is approaching

Importers and downstream users of industrial-use-only mixtures need to be aware of the upcoming second poison centre compliance date. From 1 January 2024, all newly submitted poison centre notifications (PCNs) will have to comply with the harmonised information requirements set out in Annex VIII of the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation. 

Industrial-use-only mixtures

Industrial-use-only mixtures are used exclusively within industrial premises and remain inaccessible to both consumers and professionals, whether in their final product form or through any dilution achieved by reformulation, such as mixtures within mixtures (MiM). An example of an industrial-use-only mixture (as a final product) could be an automotive paint that is only used on an industrial site and is only available to industrial end-users.

Transitional period

There will be a one-year transitional period. Notifications for industrial-use-only mixtures that are on the market and notified before 1 January 2024 will remain valid until 1 January 2025. This means that after this date, all notifications, regardless of the use type, will have to be submitted in the harmonised format.

If changes are made to the product during the transitional period (e.g. changes to the mixture composition, toxicological properties, or product identifiers), a notification in the harmonised format must be submitted before the modified mixture can be placed on the market.

Information requirements

According to Annex VIII of the CLP Regulation, the harmonised information requirements include:

• The full chemical composition

• The toxicological information

• Product information

• The unique formula identifier (UFI)

However, for industrial use mixtures, there is an option to make a "limited submission" where compositional information from the Safety Data Sheet can be used. If this option is used, the notification must include a contact person who can quickly access the full compositional details 24 hours per day in case of an incident.

PCNs can be prepared and submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) using the International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID). More information is available on the ECHA Poison Centre Website: https://poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/.