Annex VIII to CLP: Submission of information on dangerous mixtures – UEIL Newsletter December 2019

17/12/2019

HSE Committe: Annex VIII to CLP: Submission of information on dangerous mixtures

“New” legislation unsettles consumers as well as manufacturers of lubricants. We’re talking about Article 45 of the “CLP”, the legislation on the classifying, labelling and packaging of dangerous goods in the EU. The legislation has been in force since 2012, but Article 45 is now the focus. It stipulates that “Member States shall appoint a body or bodies responsible for receiving information (…) This information shall include the chemical composition of mixtures placed on the market and classified as hazardous (…).” This is nothing new so far: in many EU countries the submission of information about dangerous mixtures was required by local poison centers, at least for consumer products such as washing powders. What is new is that you must now send information on any dangerous mixture to a central ECHA database, instead of the local poison centers. However, the Member States may still have additional requirements.

Annex VIII to CLP describes when, how, and which information should be submitted. There is also an 85-page guidance document which explains Annex VIII.

Unfortunately, some false rumors have been circulating about Annex VIII. First, only information about mixtures with health hazards (and some physical hazards) needs to be submitted. Lubricants labeled as dangerous for the environment are excluded. Most lubricants for consumer use (e.g. engine oils) are not labeled as “dangerous” and are therefore not subject to this legislation.

Second, the submission of information on lubricants labeled as “dangerous” for industrial use only is required from January 2024, and one year later for products where the information has been submitted previously.

Information on dangerous lubricants for consumer and professional use must be submitted earlier, in January 2021. The original date for consumer products was January 2020, but this has now been postponed to 2021.

The submission does indeed include the full formulation and other information in the language of the country where the product is placed on the market (make sure to tell your re-sellers not to deliver dangerous lubricants in another country without notification!) However, the suppliers, i.e. (toll-) manufacturers, private-labelers etc. are responsible for the submission. As a part of the submission, a so-called “UFI” needs to be generated (from the manufacturer’s VAT number and a numeric formulation number) and printed on the container / SDS. This means that customers may conclude from the UFI to the lube blender. There is a website available (https://www.decoder-ufi.com/) which calculates the VAT number from the UFI. So you could generate new UFIs for re-branding etc.

Indeed, many lubricants formulated for industrial use only are labeled as “dangerous”, and our industry should use the next years to prepare for 2024. Questions arising from the legislation are an ongoing topic of the UEIL HSE committee, and lube blenders are invited to participate in these discussions.