Compendium on analytical methods to enforce restrictions

Compendium of analytical methods Recommended by the Forum to check compliance with REACH Annex XVII restrictions

The compendium describes over 100 recommended analytical methods that inspectors in Europe can use when checking compliance with REACH restrictions in Annex XVII. The compendium is also useful for companies facing inspections.

The ECHA Forum aims at contributing to harmonised enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 – REACH, throughout the EU.

Working in this framework the ECHA Forum decided to create a living database containing analytical methods that it recommends to check compliance with Annex XVII restrictions under REACH.

The purpose of this document is to provide a ready reference of some available analytical methods that authorities or industry may use in order to assess the compliance of chemicals manufactured, used or placed on the European market to the restrictions set forth in Annex XVII to REACH.

These methods for the analysis of chemicals are a collection of methods in use in the official laboratories supporting the Member States enforcement systems and in other laboratories linked to some stakeholders organisations consulted for this purpose.

A data gathering survey amongst the cited parties was followed by an assessment conducted by expert members of the ECHA Forum Working Group on enforceability of restrictions. The methods have been scrutinised against performance requirements agreed by the Forum1 and taking into consideration the available information on sample preparation and analysis protocols and techniques. The methods judged suitable for checking compliance with restrictions are listed in this Compendium of analytical methods recommended by the ECHA Forum for checking compliance with REACH Annex XVII restrictions, hereinafter referred to as “Compendium”.

The Compendium encompasses:

- Official methods (with references published in REACH legal text);
- Standard methods (published by International, European or National standardisation bodies);
- Methods published by a recognised technical organisation, a national or EU reference laboratory (EPA, etc.);
- Internal methods developed by the respondent laboratories.

The methods included in the Compendium are recommended by the ECHA Forum to be used in the verification of compliance with the restrictions in order to ensure the quality and comparability of the analytical results. The Compendium of analytical methods recommended by the ECHA Forum for the enforcement of REACH restrictions is a tool offered by the Forum that all can use voluntarily thus evolving towards further harmonisation in the EU. Enforcement authorities, industry and public can benefit from such information.

The compendium will be used in the ongoing REACH-EN-FORCE 4 (REF-4) project which is coordinated by ECHA's Enforcement Forum. In this project, enforcement authorities in 29 European countries inspect restrictions of 14 substances which may be found in consumer products, such as textiles, toys or jewellery or used professionally, for glues or brazing fillers.

The inspections under the REF-4 project will last for the whole of 2016 and may target different REACH dutyholders – for example, importers and distributors of chemicals and articles that may contain the restricted substances. The enforcement authorities will also cooperate with the customs authorities.

The coordinated inspections under REF-4 will check if companies comply with REACH restrictions for the following substances:

- benzene
- asbestos fibres
- cadmium and its compounds
- nickel and its compounds
- chloroform
- azocolourants and azodyes
- diphenylether, octabromo derivative (C12H2Br8O)
- chromium VI compounds
- toluene
- trichlorobenzene
- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)
- phthalates
- lead and its compounds

However, countries may also choose to inspect compliance with other restrictions as well. The results of the project and the final report are expected in late 2017.

ECHA
March 2016
Version 1.0

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