Solvents industry gets ECHA recognition

The updated European Solvents industry Group, ESIG, Generic Exposure Scenarios (GES)’ use maps are now available in the use maps library of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to help REACH registrants and substance users prepare their chemical safety assessment (CSA)  and import them directly into Chesar, an application developed by ECHA.  It is a major recognition of the work ESIG has done in cooperation with downstream users and closes an important chapter.

The use maps cover the uses of solvents across the majority of their applications for industrial sites, professional workers and consumers including manufacture, formulation and (re)packaging, intermediates, process chemicals, coatings, cleaning agents, oil and gas field drilling and production operations, lubricants, agrochemicals, fuels, road and construction, laboratories, rubber production and processing, water treatment etc. They indicate the use description for solvent substances as well as their associated conditions of use. Another way of importing use information are the CSA blocks for workers, which enable export from Excel sheets into Chesar.

Under the REACH Regulation, CSAs need to be developed as part of the registration for hazardous substances. The CSA must include an assessment for workers, consumers and the environment covering the exposures arising from all uses of a substance. The exposure assessment considers those controls or risk management measures (RMMs) that need to be in place to limit exposure to acceptable levels.