Eurofins | Newsflash - February 2019 | Consumer products
Draft texts notified to the European Commission
The following draft document has been recently notified to European Commission by the Scottish Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy:
|
Reference |
Date |
Title |
|
10/01/2019 |
The Environmental Protection (Cotton Buds) (Scotland) Regulations 2019. |
New dates for EU Ecolabel criteria
The European Commission has recently published the decisions about the EU Ecolabel criteria for graphic paper and for tissue paper and tissue products. See following the summary table:
|
Date |
Code |
Title |
The new criteria and related assessment and verification requirements for each product group, shall be valid until: |
|
17/01/2019 |
DECISIONS COMMISSION DECISION (EU) 2019/70 of 11 January 2019 establishing the EU Ecolabel criteria for graphic paper and the EU Ecolabel criteria for tissue paper and tissue products. |
31st December 2024 |
Below a summary table with some recent standards updates and upcoming dates of withdrawal (non-exhaustive):
(*) Date of withdrawal: latest date by which national standards conflicting with an EN (and HD).
|
Reference |
Title |
Date of Withdrawal (*) |
Supersedes |
|
Raw, refined and boiled linseed oil for paints and varnishes - Specifications and methods of test (ISO 150:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
||
|
Plastics - Vocabulary - Amendment 1: Additional items (ISO 472:2013/Amd 1:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
- |
|
|
Paints and varnishes - Determination of resistance to liquids - Part 2: Water immersion method (ISO 2812-2:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
||
|
Binders for paints and varnishes - Determination of saponification value - Titrimetric method (ISO 3681:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
||
|
Driers for paints and varnishes (ISO 4619:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
||
|
Preparation of steel substrates before application of paints and related products - Surface preparation methods - Part 3: Hand- and power-tool cleaning (ISO 8504-3:2018). |
2019-06-30 |
New update of Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs)
On 15th January 2019, the ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) has released the new Candidate List of SVHCs. With the addition of 6 new substances, the current list of SVHCs contains 197 substances.
Update Interim Enforcement Policy for mattress pads
As already announced in our Eurofins News Flash January 2019 edition, from November 2018, the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Office of Compliance and Field Operations implemented an Interim Enforcement Policy for mattress pads subject to 16 C.F.R. Part 1632 – Standard for the Flammability of Mattresses and Mattress Pads. This interim policy allows mattress pad manufacturers to reduce testing from 6 to 2 mattress pad surfaces for each new prototype due to a shortage of standard reference material (SRM) cigarettes.
On 21st December 2018, CPSC published an update about this Interim which allows the use of commercially available king-size cigarettes: (85mm ± 2 mm), non-filtered and filled only with natural tobacco because of shortage of SRM cigarettes (even not enough for the proposed reduced testing).
Click here for getting the CPSC’s Update Interim.
California Proposition 65 Reformulations (January, 2019)
California Proposition 65 is the ‘Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986’, which has been effective for almost 30 years. Due to the implement of California Proposition 65, more and more court cases are settled to reduce the exposure of carcinogenic and reproductive chemicals by reformulating the consumer products containing such chemicals.
In order to keep retailers and manufacturers up-to-date, the highlights of some recent consent agreements are summarized as below:
|
Product |
Chemical |
Limit |
Case No |
|
Cable lock and luggage tag |
DBP, DINP |
1000ppm Products exceed the limit shall utilize a warning statement. |
Out of court |
Guidance for asbestos in consumer products
As already announced in our Eurofins News Flash November 2018 edition, the “Prohibition of Asbestos and Products Containing Asbestos Regulations (SOR/2018-196)” is effective from 30th December 2018.
These Regulations prohibit the import, sale, and use of processed asbestos fibers and products containing processed asbestos fibers and consumer products containing naturally occurring asbestos in greater than trace amounts, with some exceptions.
The “Trace amounts of asbestos in consumer products guidance” is now available through the Government of Canada website. Click here.
