The European Solvents Industry Group, ESIG, a Sector Group of Cefic, is the first industry group that has finalized the review of its Specific Environmental Release Categories (spERC) to help industry and downstream users comply with REACH requirements.

In 2016, a standard factsheet and a background document format were developed in close co-operation between industries and ECHA in order to improve the spERC documentation. Standardized Quality Checks were agreed upon to increase the credibility of the spERCs towards regulators.

At the beginning of the year, ESIG completed and published its review using the new formats and 40 spERC factsheets covering 22 use scenarios and related background documents as well as quality checks for those eight scenarios for which the release factors were revised are available on its website. Soon all factsheets will also be available in Chesar format and all spERCs included in the use maps too. After validation by ECHA, the whole package will be updated in the ECHA use map library.

Under REACH, registrants are required to prepare a chemical safety assessment defining the conditions of use for substances that are produced over 10 tonnes per year. If the substance is considered hazardous, the registrant is required to prepare an exposure scenario explaining the appropriate risk assessment measures to ensure that the chemical can be used safely. Assessing the environmental effects originating from the use of a chemical is part of these processes.