Last chance to join magnesium REACH consortium
Producers and importers of magnesium and its alloys have only a few days left to join an EU REACH registration consortium organised by the European Magnesium Research Association (EFM).
The body plans one last meeting on 25 September in Frankfurt to allow companies to become founding members at a fee of €2,000. After that they will incur higher fees in order to compensate members for the work they have already put in.
According to EFM’s Dr Norbert Südland, a number of producers and importers both from within and outside the EU have joined the consortium since its first founding meeting in June. The consortium is open to downstream users that are also importers of magnesium-based alloys and compounds. A legal agreement governing membership is currently being finalised.
At next week’s meeting companies intend to finalise a list of the compounds and alloys that will need to be registered under REACH. Dr Südland has drawn up a preliminary list which contains at least ten other metals usually alloyed with magnesium. He is particularly concerned that companies are aware of, and disclose the use of any of 15 “rare earth” metals sometimes used in alloys, so that they can also be pre-registered.
Once a list is finalised, the consortium plans to conduct literature surveys and other enquiries to assess the quantity and quality of data held by members and others - perhaps in other consortia - prior to drawing up testing proposals to generate its own data. These it will have to submit to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for approval.
Members will also draw up a registration plan. Magnesium as a metal produced and imported above 1,000 tonnes per year will have to be registered first – by November 2010. Other metals, provided they are pre-registered, can be registered later.
Importers have a choice to make, and soon, Dr Südland says: they can import from companies within or outside the EU. If they are outside they will need to make sure these products are registered by some one under REACH. If they choose an EU supplier, purchasers still need to check that companies are part of the consortium or registering on their own.
Downstream users are asked to identify their uses of magnesium and its alloys to the consortium so that members can decide whether or not they will support such uses. If they do support them, they will carry out chemical safety assessments for those applications and advise on risk management measures in chemical safety reports.
If the consortium does not support the use, then downstream users will need to notify the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and may have to register substances for that application themselves.
Companies making magnesium die casting alloys face particular problems as the concentrations of individual constituents are changed during the die casting process, making it unclear whether the resulting alloy can be regarded as the same as the one originally used. Dr Südland says ECHA has been made aware of the issue.
The magnesium consortium plans to liaise with another for aluminium and is also in close contact with the automotive industry to ensure all possible synergies are exploited. Dr Südland points out that once formed, the boundaries of consortia cannot be changed, which makes it important to get things right at the beginning. “It is like being caught in a flood”, he says, “even if you can see it coming, you cannot change your steps”.
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