e-News - 29 September 2010

Internet network problems on 28 September

ECHA experienced an internet network problem yesterday, 28 September, from 11.00 to 19.30 EET. This was caused by the physical damage to some cables in Sweden which resulted in a loss of internet service to much of Sweden and Finland. It meant that ECHA's website was not visible outside Finland and that e-mails could not pass in or out of the Agency.

ECHA apologises for any inconvenience that this has caused. This problem affected access to REACH-IT but in no way affected the information contained within it.

ECHA has published the conclusions of The Directors' Contact Group (DCG)

The Directors' Contact Group was set up in January 2010 and is made up of the European Commission, ECHA and Industry Associations. The DCG objectives are to monitor the overall preparedness of companies and to identify and resolve the priority issues of concern in meeting obligations relevant to the registration of chemical substances. Special attention is also paid to priority issues of concern for a secured supply of high volume substances to downstream users. A Press Release has been issued on the support to be offered to registrants in exceptional cases (see below).
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Press Releases

27/10/2010
ECHA offers support to registrants in exceptional cases

Companies facing exceptional situations that are likely to prevent them from registering on time should inform ECHA well ahead of the deadline of 30 November 2010. 
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24/09/2010
ECHA calls for comments on reports proposing restrictions on mercury and phenylmercury

ECHA has prepared a report, on the request of the Commission, suggesting restrictions on several mercury containing measuring devices. A report from Norway is suggesting a ban on five phenylmercury substances. ECHA started a six-month public consultation period on these proposals. ECHA, however, encourages interested parties to send in their comments by 24 December 2010. 
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News Alerts

29/9/2010
REACH-IT to be upgraded

ECHA will shut down the REACH-IT system for routine reconfiguration and maintenance on Friday 1 October. REACH-IT will be shut down at 02:00 o'clock Friday morning Helsinki time and should re-open during the afternoon.
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29/9/2010
ECHA to review the whole Guidance on Substance Identity

Updated Guidance on Substance Identity will be issued by ECHA in 2011 after the first REACH registration deadline. This formal Guidance will also replace the withdrawn Practical Guide 11. 
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27/09/2010
Experts Workshop on non-test methods under REACH

ECHA held a Workshop entitled "Dealing with the uncertainty of non-test methods under REACH" on 23-24 September. ECHA held an open science-based debate on its practice on assessing predicted properties of substances instead of using new animal test data with regulatory scientists from European countries, USA, Australia, OECD, the European Commission, industry and non-governmental organisations
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On the web

The President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen visited European Chemicals Agency

On 28 September the President Tarja Halonen visited ECHA to learn about the Agency's work and meet the Agency's management. President Halonen also participated in the meeting of the national helpdesks - HelpNet. HelpNet is the network of national helpdesks that support industry in complying with the European Chemicals legislation, REACH and CLP.
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