Monthly Briefing – May 2012 issue

In this month's Briefing:

Key articles:

• ECHA chief Geert Dancet tells Geraint Roberts the agency faces “difficult choices” as it workload increases and staff levels are trimmed;

• Emma Chynoweth reports on Chemical Watch's recent webinar in which industry experts offered tips on how to produce and interpret extended safety data sheets under REACH;

• In this month's Guest Column, Dieter Drohmann, head of the Only Representatives Organisation (ORO), argues that ORs are vital for fair global regulatory compliance with REACH;

• Laura Greenhalgh examines the growing evidence that some chemicals can affect human behaviour and the brain due to direct neurotoxicity or endocrine disruption during development:

• Geraint Roberts reports on the REACH/CLP challenges facing chemical distributors;

• Sean Milmo says the Endocrine Disrupters 2012 conference earlier this year heard about new assessment methods but showed changes in the rapidly evolving field are creating uncertainties for industry and regulators;

• Dr Anna Gergely, Laurel Berzanskis and Mitchell Cheeseman of Steptoe & Johnson explain how nanomaterials are regulated under food contact materials regulations in the EU and US;

• Emma Davies looks at efforts around the globe to regulate perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and assess alternatives to currently used substances;

• in this month's CLP Clinic, REACHReady's Lisa Allen explains how the process works for updating Annex VI of the CLP Regulation;

• in the REACH Hub column,Vincenzo Girardi of ReachCentrum offers advice to new REACH registrants on how to ensuretheirIT toolkit is ready; and

• in this month's NGO Platform, David Thomas, legal adviser to the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, argues that the EU ban on marketing cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients tested on animals should be interpreted broadly.