Brussels, March 21st 2016 - Cefic – the European chemical industry council - and its German counterpart, VCI, are pleased to announce the launch of a practical guide on safe use of chemical mixtures under REACH, the European regulation through which chemical manufacturers strive towards protecting human health and the environment.

Under the Chemicals Regulation REACH (EC) No. 1907/2006, the concept of an Exposure Scenario (ES) was introduced as a new element of a chemical safety assessment. An ES was identified as the means to communicate the safe use conditions of a substance to Downstream Users (DUs) along its various supply chains.

As most chemical substances are usually used in mixtures, formulators need a way to derive safe use information for their mixtures using the exposure scenario. For this purpose a Cefic/VCI Task Force developed the Lead Component Identification (LCID) methodology.

About LCID methodology

The underlying principle of the LCID methodology is that if the risks are controlled for the most hazardous component(s), then the risks from the other substances in the mixture are also likely to be controlled. The methodology relies on concentrations of the components, so-called DNELs (derived no-effect levels) and PNECs (predicted no-effect concentrations) available from REACH registrations and the classification of the components of the mixtures as communicated via extended SDSs (safety data sheets).

These activities are part of a plan by ECHA, the European Chemical Agency, Cefic and other stakeholders for improving the content and use of exposure scenarios called the CSR/ES Roadmap. Several industry organisations and Member States signed the commitment charter for this important effort.

• Read a brief description
• Consult the guide

Contact: Jean-Christophe Dewart, REACH Manager, Cefic, jcd@cefic.be or Dervla Gleeson, Cefic Media Relations Manager, dgl@cefic.be (+32 2 676 7289)