Are your hazardous substances up to date?
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In my last blog post, I dealt with the amendment of the Gefahrstoffverordnung (Ordinance on Hazardous Substances) [1]. However, this is not the only legal text that will change in the near future and is relevant for you as a user of hazardous substances. At the beginning of 2023, the transition period of the 2nd Amendment Regulation of Annex II of the REACH Regulation [2] ends. In this article, I would like to explain what this means for you, whether your hazardous substances are up-to-date and how you should act now.
Amendment Regulation of the REACH Regulation
Annex II of the REACH Regulation defines the structure of a safety data sheet and what contents it includes. As a safety data sheet creator, this is the basis for safety data sheets for your own products. In the meantime, Annex II has been amended and adapted for the second time. For this, the second amending regulation was issued. For you as a recipient of safety data sheets, however, this is only of minor importance; after all, you do not have to create your own SDS.
Transition period
Of course, a change in the law in such a case also means that all SDSs have to be adapted. This requires a certain amount of time; a changeover from one day to the next is not feasible. Therefore, there are transition periods. During these, SDSs prepared according to the old Annex II are legally correct, as well as those that already include the innovations. This transition period ends at the end of 2022, and from January 2023 only the new form is legally permissible. Until then, all safety data sheets of products still in circulation must undergo adaptation.
Updating hazardous substances
Of course, an SDS can also be updated for other reasons, for example because the composition changes. No matter for what reason an update happens: If you have bought the product within the last 12 months, the supplier must send you a new SDS free of charge. In the case of products that you bought a long time ago, you must find out for yourself whether a new SDS is available. Legally, there is no period after which an SDS is “too old”. We know from our customers that they often ask the supplier after two to three years whether there is a new SDS. If so, you must take action to keep the hazardous substances up to date. In our GeSi³ software, this is possible via an automated e-mail dispatch.
Request new SDS
Even if the transition period is not yet over, it is worthwhile to already ask suppliers for a new SDS version. As a GeSi³ user, you can, for example, change the standard text for requesting new SDSs and point out the end of the transition period. You can then send this e-mail to all suppliers whose SDSs are older than one year. As soon as you get a new SDS, you can import it into the software again as usual via our online tool SDBcheck®. In this way, you can easily keep your hazardous substances up to date.
[1] Ordinance on Protection against Hazardous Substances (GefStoffV), as of 07/2021
[2] Regulation (EU) 2020/878, amending Regulation amending Annex II to the REACH Regulation