UEIL HSE Committee Newsletter December 2017

11/12/2017

First of all, the HSE committee is concerned about the relatively low numbers of registrations. Only 11.000 substances are registered so far, but half of them only as intermediates. The estimated number of substances on the EU market is about 40,000. UEIL members should therefore contact their suppliers for more information on registration intentions.

CoRAP and future availability of lube additives: a number of additives including some biocides are under review of the EU commission for their risks on health and environment. Early information exchange within the HSE group helps us to find replacements or – even better- convince authorities that use in lubricants is safe.

GLAPS: the car manufacturers set up a global list of declarable substances in their manufacturing sites. HSE members are deeply involved in creating the European part of this global list. Our goal is to find the right balance between protecting our know how and supporting the industry to use safe substances.

Ecolabel: the update of the Ecolabel for lubricants is also discussed in the HSE group. Some of our members are involved in the commission work. As a first outcome, the changes for Ecolabel are quite limited, allowing UEIL members to keep their already successfully introduced products.

More and more concerns of the public are about “Mosh / Moah” in food. Mosh / Moah means “saturated (MOSH) and aromatic (MOAH) hydrocarbons”. Risks for human health related to hydrocarbons are linked to so called aromatic and polycyclic aromatics, whereas many other hydrocarbons (e.g. white oils used in cosmetics and H1 lubricants) are not dangerous. Together with the ELGI food grade working group and the German lubricant association VSI we have set up papers and press releases to inform the public about these differences.