CLH public consultations on a new insecticide and an industrial chemical

07-02-2013: ECHA is looking for comments on two harmonised classification and labelling (CLH) proposals, for sulfoxaflor and 1,2-epoxybutane. The public consultations will be open for 45 days and will end on 25 March 2013.

The CLH proposal for the insecticide sulfoxaflor (ISO) has been submitted by the rapporteur Member State (Ireland). It is a new active substance which does not have a harmonised classification listed in Annex VI to the CLP Regulation. The dossier submitter is proposing health and environmental classification for this substance. Sulfoxaflor is currently also in the approval process under the EU Regulation concerning the placing on the market of plant protection products. In this context, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will soon launch a public consultation on the draft risk assessment report (DAR) prepared by Ireland. The DAR contains the assessment of the risk of sulfoxaflor to human health and the environment and will be peer reviewed at EU level. ECHA encourages interested parties to participate to the EFSA consultation on sulfoxaflor as well and to provide consistent comments under the two consultation procedures.

The CLH proposal for 1,2-epoxybutane has been prepared by BASF SE and submitted by the Member State competent authority in Germany. The report proposes the removal of the environmental classification from its current Annex VI entry to the CLP Regulation. According to the proposal new experimental results have shown that this substance is readily biodegradable, whereas the previous classification was justified by the lack of data on biodegradation.

Examples of uses of these substances, as indicated in the CLH report, are included in the table below. The CLH reports and the dedicated webform to submit the comments are available on the ECHA website. The comments received during the public consultation will be regularly published on the ECHA website during the 45-day consultation phase. Parties concerned are encouraged to submit comments early during the consultation period to allow sufficient time for the public to react and provide comments.

Table 1. The proposed classification and labelling for harmonisation and examples of uses of the substances.

*Please note that information on uses does not impact the classification and labelling, which is solely based on the intrinsic properties of a substance. Examples of uses are copied from the CLH report.