On 30 April, Petrochemicals Europe’s BDO sector group organised a one-hour webinar in cooperation with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to explain the N-Methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP) guideline that gives recommendations on how to comply with the restriction and protect workers. The Webinar had a record attendance of 175 participants. It featured speakers from ECHA, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Lyondell Chemie and Cefic.

In April 2018, the European Commission published a restriction (Regulation (EU)/2018/588) for NMP.  The restriction establishes DNELs for exposure of workers to NMP via both the inhalation and the dermal routes and is seen as the most appropriate Union-wide measure to address that risk. All downstream users of NMP have until 9 May 2020 (9 May 2024 for the wire winding sector) to implement the restriction. ECHA developed a guideline with the help of Petrochemicals Europe to give practical advice on how the risk for workers can be adequately controlled and monitored. To develop this guideline, ECHA organised a public consultation and a workshop with selected industry representatives. The BDO Sector Group and Petrochemicals Europe as umbrella association hosting NMP producers and several users´ groups were involved and fully supportive of this initiative.

The recording of the webinar is available HERE. The presentations of the speakers can also be downloaded: Philip de Smedt, Cefic, Petteri Mäkelä, ECHA, Christiaan Fetter, Lyondell Chemie and Renske Beetstra, Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The speakers also prepared a Q&A to answer further questions from NMP users.