EU Publishes Draft Guidance and Seeks Comments on Nickel Restrictions under REACH

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published draft guidance in January 2017 to assist industry in complying with the scope of restriction on nickel under entry 27 to Annex XVII of REACH. Stakeholders have until April 19, 2017, to comment on the draft guidelines.

Under Annex XVII of REACH, the use of nickel and its compounds is split into three different limits for the release of nickel in articles:

• < 0.2 ug/cm²/week for post assemblies which are inserted into pierced ears and other pierced parts of the human body
• 0.5 ug/cm²/week for articles intended to come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin such as earrings, necklaces, wrist-watch cases and rivet buttons
• 0.5 ug/cm²/week for a period of at least two years of normal use for articles in the point above where these have a non-nickel coating

Previously, in April 2014, the ECHA had published a guideline defining ‘prolonged contact with the skin’ as potentially more than either:

• 10 minutes on three or more occasions within two weeks, or
• 30 minutes on one or more occasions within two weeks

The draft guidance, the ECHA is now seeking comments on, now states that contact of more than 10 or 30 minutes needs to be continuous on each occasion.

The draft guidance also provides examples of articles and parts of articles that should be considered to be within or outside the scope of restriction. The draft includes three Annexes – Annex 1 and 3 are non-exhaustive lists of articles considered within the scope of the restriction and Annex 2 contains examples of products considered outside of the scope of the restriction.

The deadline for the submission of comments on the draft guidance is April 19, 2017. Following this, it is expected that a final guideline will be published on the ECHA website to assist economic operators and enforcement authorities with compliance for nickel falling under entry 27 to Annex XVII of REACH.

SGS REACH Services
SGS will follow up and inform interested parties as developments on REACH regulation occur. Our expertise combined with consultancy services and experience in consumer product supply chains provides a central point of contact for global solutions. Learn more about SGS’s REACH Services (www.sgs.com/reach)

SGS SafeGuardS keep you up to date with the latest news and developments in the consumer goods industry. Read the full EU Seeks Comments for Draft Guideline on Nickel under REACH SafeGuardS. (www.sgs.com/en/news/2017/02/safeguards-02417-eu-seeks-comments-for-draft-guideline-on-nickel-under-reach)

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Hing Wo Tsang
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Email: cts.media@sgs.com
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This release was published on openPR.