ECHA Updates List of Registered Substances Under REACH

The REACH regulation in Europe reached its first milestone this past November 30th with the registration of thousands of high volume (>1000 tonnes per year) and high concern (substances of very high concern) chemicals.  This week ECHA made its most recent update to the database containing the information on those registered substances.

You can access the database here.

The list consists of two parts.  The top part allows you to search for chemicals by name, CAS number or EC number.  It will tell you whether the data dossier has been disseminated, i.e., been made public on the ECHA web site.  Unfortunately most of the chemicals registered have not yet had their data dossiers disseminated online.

The bottom part of the page allows you to download the list in either XLS or CSV format.  For most people the XLS format (i.e., Excel spreadsheet) is the most useful.  Here you can scan the list or search for names, CAS numbers and other identifiers, and if the chemical is on the list it will indicate whether the registration was Full (full dossier), or an onsite or transported isolated intermediate (which requires only a reduced data dossier submission).  Here again, unfortunately, not all of the registered substances have been listed.  ECHA will continue to update the list, and the dissemination of data dossiers, as fast as they can process the thousands of dossiers received.

Once the dossiers are online you will be able to view the robust summary data for all of the endpoints, including "information on the substances which companies manufacture or import, their hazardous properties, their classification and labelling and how to use the substances safely, for example."