Chemical regulatory and compliance

Ricardo offers a full suite of chemical regulatory registrations and solutions that can be tailored to your business and supply chain.

As REACH registrations must be held by a company based physically within the EU or UK (for EU REACH and UK REACH respectively), Ricardo also offers an Only Representative (OR) service to manufacturers and formulators based outside of these areas. By shifting the regulatory burden away, Ricardo’s clients find that their products become more attractive to UK and EU based customers who can simply order the product and be assured of regulatory compliance and market quality.

By using Ricardo’s REACH team our clients are able to plan for market launches, receive advice on label requirements which helps anticipate market reception, and give their customers piece of mind that all regulatory compliance is addressed before they order the product.

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Advance notice of regulatory changes and the impact they will have to business operations enables organisations to act strategically, rather than reacting quickly – and usually paying the price. Undertaking regulatory risk assessments provides a clear view of which chemicals, compounds or products may be impacted in the short- and long-term and provides an opportunity to explore alternatives. 

A chemical risk assessment provides a full understanding of the nature, scale and probability of a potential adverse effect of a chemical. Forming the foundation of regulatory decisions for industrial chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food additives and food contact substances in developed countries today, chemical risk assessments typically consist of three stages:

1. Hazard characterization: determination of the magnitude of exposure and the probability and severity of adverse effects.
2. Exposure assessment: identifying the frequency and extent with which exposures occurs, based on historical data or estimated where little or no data exists.
3. Risk characterization: combining the information from the hazard characterization and the exposure assessment to form a conclusion about the risk level, and where indicated, the additional risk management measures required.

Ricardo’s chemical experts are well placed to support with chemical risk assessments, along with a suite of other services

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Poison centres play an important role in the safe use of chemicals by providing medical advice to general consumers and physicians on health emergencies arising from exposure to hazardous products. Under the implementation of Article 45 of the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (CLP) entities placing certain hazardous mixtures on the market must provide information to nationally appointed bodies, which is then used by the poison centres to provide advice. 

Notification of mixtures that have a health or physical effect classification is mandatory in all but one of the EU Member States and how the notification process works is determined by national law. As such, the requirements for industry and the delivery of the poison centre service differs from Member State to Member State.

Ricardo’s team of chemical regulatory experts can help reduce the impact on your business resources and maintain compliance across all member states, with services from submitting notifications through to handling your poison centre calls.

Deadlines

To harmonise the information required in notifications across the EU, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) introduced Annex VIII of Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation which sets out the deadlines for notifications via the ECHA portal for all participating EU Member States, also included below: 

• 1 January 2024 – for industrial use products. 
• 1 January 2025 – for notifications which were completed via individual Member States and now need to be replaced by the harmonised portal notifications.

Unsure if your mixture falls under ‘industrial-use’?

Watch our on-demand webinar as our regulatory experts discuss industrial-use poison centre notifications, limited vs full notifications, using a rapid response number for your limited submissions, examples of GB divergence and how to maintain your regulatory compliance.

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Chemical regulations are constantly evolving and diversification between national and regional regulations can be a major issue for companies wishing to supply to EU, UK, North America, Asia or other markets across the globe. Therefore maintaining regulatory compliance requires regular inventory reviews combined with up-to-date regulatory knowledge, which can be both time-consuming and complex.

Chemical Compliance Monitor supports organisations with their regulatory burden and reduces the time, expense and resource required to understand the complex requirements and changes for the supply and use of chemical substances.

A comprehensive inventory check ascertains the status of substances in your product portfolio and whether they appear on any of the selected regulatory lists, compiling this information into a clear, easy-to-read report.

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SDS store vital information and communicate potential chemical hazards to the supply chain, end users and other stakeholders with the aim of minimising risks to people, assets, reputation and the environment.

Failure to provide sufficient information on an SDS can cause delays in accessing markets, impact supply chains, increase costs, and increase the risk of harm to people, assets, reputation and the environment when emergency response relies on the data held. 

Our in-house team of experts can support your organisation through authoring, translating, and updating your Safety Data Sheets. We also offer compliance checks, supply and transport assistance including labelling inventory submissions and transport classifications and production of CLP compliant labels for supply and Product of Transport labels supported by a qualified DGSA.

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Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) is the UK law that requires organisations to prevent or reduce employee exposure to substances that pose a risk to health through the sharing of information, provision of appropriate equipment and implementing adequate controls.

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The sustainability movement has triggered numerous global policy initiatives increasing awareness of chemical persistence when examining global plastic pollution and the presence of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment. This focus creates two key challenges for the global chemicals industry: the increased demands for biodegradation testing and persistence assessments, and the complexity of the assessments.

Ricardo has developed the Persistence Assessment Tool to improve the consistency, transparency and robustness of chemical assessments required by global regulations.

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The hazards and risks posed by chemicals are constantly under review by regulatory bodies and new criteria and information/testing requirements are introduced periodically. Maximising the return on investment with evidentiary research projects requires a high level of knowledge, experience and resource to manage the process, maintain timelines, and interpret outcomes. 

Ricardo has a team of in-house chemical experts with advanced knowledge of global regulations and experience in managing research projects. This, along with commercial acumen, project management skills and network of laboratories and environmental specialists further strengthens our ability to support chemical sector businesses with requirements in scientific research, writing publications and presentations, and literature reviews, through to data analysis and the utilisation of monitoring data and modelling.

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Sent 2-3 times a year, our chemical solutions newsletter includes updates on global regulations, details upcoming deadlines and explores how the sector and its regulatory controls may evolve in the coming years.

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