Surfactants groups ready for Reach

25 June 2008 18:34  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS News)--Manufacturers and consumers of linear alkylbenzene (LAB) and linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) do not have to worry about the European chemical legislation Reach because of data reviews already conducted on these surfactants, industry groups said on Wednesday.

Officials from the Council for LAB/LAS Environmental Research (CLER) - a coalition of LAB producers from the Americas - and the European LAB manufacturers group ECOSOL highlighted some of the surfactants’ safety assessment data already published at the CESIO 7th World Surfactants Congress in Paris.

“Sufficient data about LAB and LAS are already available for the registration phase of Reach. The only thing we need to do is translate it into the Reach format,” Thomas Grumbles, CLER chairman and also the product safety & occupational health manager at Sasol North America, said at the sidelines of the conference.

“We don’t have data gaps for these surfactants. We hope that LAB and LAS manufacturers and consumers will use these extensive data, which meet and even exceed all applicable Reach requirements,” said Jose Luis Berna, chairman of ECOSOL as well as research and development director of Petresa.

Both officials said LAS is the first cleaning product ingredient to complete the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Screening Information Data Set (SIDS) assessment programme. OECD represents the health and environmental regulatory authorities of the 30 most advanced industrialised nations.

In addition to the SIDS programme, the environmental safety and acceptability of LAS has also been recently confirmed in several major regulatory decisions in Europe, said Berna.

The three-day surfactants event ends on Wednesday.

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By: Doris de Guzman
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