CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme) directly affects around 5,000 public and private sector organisation in the UK, many of which are yet to take any action.  *The deadline for registration is 30 September 2010.*  After this date, organisations are subject to penalties, starting from £5,000, and will also be subject to a £500 per day fine.  In response to this, AEA have developed an online report tool to help you with CRC compliance.

From December 2010 there is a requirement for all newly produced pure substances to be classified under CLP (the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures Regulation), which is the European variant of the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for classification and labelling of chemicals.  *In recognition of this, NCEC has recently launched an upgrade to ChemeDox® to include a CLP search interface.*

Lithium Batteries: safe handling and transport training.  Come and join us on 14 September for a half-day course.  The training offers an insight into the requirements for the safe handling and regulations regarding the transport of Lithium batteries. 

Substances of very high concern are substances that have hazards with severe consequences. Substances meeting the criteria may be placed on a list. The list of SVHCs was first published on 28 October 2008 and was last updated on 30th March 2010. This list is known as the Candidate List and all substances are added by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). SVHC may have very serious, or in some cases, irreversible affects on both people and the environment, hence the reason for their authorisation.

NCEC recently surveyed a range of chemical and health and safety experts and found that only 33% of people understood how to comply with CLP and GHS.  *Are you one of the 67% of people who don’t understand how to comply with CLP and GHS?*  NCEC offer CLP training to help you understand how to comply.  We have just announced two new dates: 10/08/2010 and 11/08/2010.

Notes of a meeting held on 1 June 2010 to consider the formation of a British Professional Association for anyone involved in the Transport/Carriage of Dangerous Goods can be downloaded here

Information on CLP, REACH, ADR 2011 and other legislation updates, as well as information on training and NCEC out and about.  Click here to read the newsletter

(EU) 453/2010 amending REACH re Annex II now available as a pdf download

Downstream users of chemicals have the opportunity to check whether the critical chemical substances that they need are going to be registered in time. ECHA has published a list of all the chemical substances that companies have told us they plan to register for the 2010 REACH deadline. If a substance should be registered in 2010 and it is not, it will be illegal to manufacture or sell it within the EU after 30 November 2010.

The new guidance is intended for companies who recycle and recover as recycled or recovered chemical substances do not necessarily need to be registered under REACH.

In the last two years a couple of issues have emerged relating to the level of training and expertise of those involved in the transport/carriage of dangerous goods.  One issue has been the growing international awareness that the levels of expertise of those involved in the transport of dangerous goods is being lost, with the consequential increased risk of a significant dangerous goods accident/incident. What can be done to address this problem?  *A meeting is being held on 1st June 2010 to discuss the potential establishment of a British Professional Association for DGSAs and others involved in the transport or carriage of dangerous goods. * Talks include talks by DfT, DGSAAI & NCEC.  Download the information pdf or contact us for more information.

As has recently been reported the production of cricket bats may well be reduced this year. This is due to the Indian government only allowing imports of English Willow into the country that have been fumigated with methyl bromide. Though the wood is grown in England, more specifically East Anglia, India is the worlds leading bat manufacturing nation.

  Changes have been made to the following:  1- The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (SR 2010/160) which comes into operation on 19 May and 2- The Carriage of Explosives Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (SR 2010/59)

Need help answering the fundamental question about an SDS? "Does this document provide me with the information to take the necessary steps to protect people and environment?"  

Mephedrone has seen its fair share of news coverage in the past few months but what is it and what does it actually do?

The 'Get Compliant' section of the NCEC website now has a new page to add to the family. 

The NCEC March 2010 Newsletter is now available online.   Topics include legislation, new Hazchem Posters, chemical safety training, a look behind the scenes, and more

The 2010 Hazmat Event promised to be bigger and better than ever before and thanks to ongoing support from both the Emergency Services and a large variety of other Hazmat Professionals, this promise was not broken.

As an extension to ChemeDox®, NCEC’s comprehensive chemical safety documentation management system, we have now added a new SDS Location module.  This module is designed to save you time and money on audits, process reviews and daily tasks, and will help you comply with legislation associated wit the provision of chemical safety information to employees and subcontractors.  It allows you to assign your SDSs to particular locations, then view and search your documents by, for example, site, store, production line, lab etc.  The module is tailored to your business so you can search your documents in a way that is relevant to you, whilst maintaining your audit trail by location. 

Not only have NCEC just launched the new Chemdata customer portal, but Chemdata has never been better value!  The latest version of Chemdata has an extra 1,000 substances and 4,000 extra synonyms and Trade names.  This brings the grand total of substances to 36,000 with over 116,000 synonyms and Trade names. The Customer Portal allows our customers to download the latest versions of Chemdata and Pocket Chemdata, as well as get to know more about the Chemdata team here at NCEC.  We would like to thank our customers for the overwhelming positive feedback, it makes all the hard work worth while.

Marine incidents involving chemical substances are more complex to deal with than oil spills (for which several simulation tools already exist).  Dealing with one single substance dispersed at sea can be difficult enough, but when two or more are present these may interact in a wholly different way, forming complex chemical compounds. In addition, the variables required to assess the exact conditions of each incident are many, including tidal currents, weather patterns and proximity to population centres.

NCEC's first newsletter of 2010 (covering legislation changes, Hazmat 2010 and much more) is now available online