Oops - Make that 107,067 Substances Notified, Not 24,529, Under EU Classification Scheme

Okay, so it was just a little bit off.  On January 4, 2011 the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced with fanfare that 3.1 million classification and labeling (CLP) notifications had been received, and that these covered a total of 24,529 substances.  Yesterday ECHA announced, with a bit of flush to their faces, that they miscounted - the number of substances covered by those notifications was actually 101,067!

The problem stems from the rush counting (after all, the announcement was less than 24 hours after the notification deadline).  It turns out that some of the bulk files received were counted as single substances when in fact they were notifications of many distinct substances.  Hence the quadrupling of the initial substance count.

Of course, the number will continue to rise as any hazardous substance that manufacturers or importers place on the market must submit CLP notifications prior to doing so.