In a November 18, 2019 press release, ECHA announced the results and publication of the official report on a REACH Article 33 Enforcement Project involving 15 EU countries. The project tested 682 articles from 405 companies; products included: “clothing, footwear and home textiles; wires, cables and electronic accessories; plastic or textile floorings; wall coverings; and other plastic and rubber products”

Of the articles tested, 12% (84 of 682) were found to contain at least one Candidate List Substance above 0.1%.

• • For 45 of those, there was a duty to communicate SVHC information down the supply chain (b2b) as per REACH Article 33; however, the communication requirement was met for only 5 of the articles resulting in an 89% non-compliance.
  • For companies supplying articles directly to consumers (b2c), 22 of 43 suppliers were considered as not providing enough information about the SVHCs to ensure safe use.

The overall verdict made by ECHA in the report is that the level of REACH SVHC in articles disclosure is not acceptable and steps need to be taken to improve the situation.

ECHA pointed to the upcoming SCIP database as one tool that should help start to drive improvements in SVHC disclosure.

The ECHA press release and report are available on the ECHA website[1].

[1] ECHA press release, https://echa.europa.eu/-/companies-need-to-improve-communication-of-hazardous-substances-in-products