New public consultation on eight potential Substances of Very High Concern

On March 9, 2021, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published proposals to identify eight chemicals as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and possible candidates for authorization.

Interested parties are invited to comment on the eight proposals by April 23, 2021. If the eight proposals are accepted, the Candidate List of SVHC will expand to 219.

All eight substances are proposed because of their potentially serious and often irreversible effects on human health and the environment. The names of the substances, the reasons for their proposal as SVHC and their potential uses are provided in the below table:

Australia and New Zealand published a new version of AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021 Safety of Toys Part 3: Migration of Certain Elements

Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand issued a new version of Safety of Toys AS/ NZS 8124-3 Migration of Certain Elements in February 2021. The 2021 version replaces AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2012 and its amendment 1:2016.

The toy safety standard originated in Australia as part of AS 1647-1974 and later has been jointly revised and redesignated as AS/NZS ISO 8124.3. The new version AS/NZS ISO 8124.3:2021 identically adopts ISO 8124-3:2020, which was published in March 2020 and specifies maximum acceptable levels and methods of sampling, extraction and determination for the migration of certain elements including antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium from toy materials and from parts of toys. The standard does not apply to packaging materials unless they are intended to be kept, for example boxes and containers, or unless they form part of the toy or have intended play value.

The newly published standard contains several major changes when compared to the previous version. The key changes include:

• Two detailed dewaxing methods using either soxhlet extractor or solvent extractor have been introduced to replace the original method.

• Definitions of paper and paperboard have been separated. Materials formed by irregular cellulose fibers having a mass per unit area under 400 g/m2 are defined as paper (laminated paper is not treated as paper). Materials like card or cardboard having a mass per unit area over 400 g/m2 is defined as paperboard.

The migration value requirements are provided in below Table

Massachusetts Bans 11 Flame Retardants in Consumer Goods

On January 1, 2021, the Massachusetts legislature passed bill H4900 to ban 11 flame retardants in certain consumer goods, effective from December 31, 2021.

The sale or manufacture of bedding, carpeting, children's products, residential upholstered furniture and window treatments containing more than 1,000 ppm each of the following flame retardants (FR) in any component part of the covered product will be banned.

It is notable that a manufacturer of a covered product needs to inform retailers and other persons who sell the FR-containing products on or before July 1, 2021.