The deadline for businesses to notify their products with the Spanish poison centre has NOT been extended following the deadline on June 01, 2017. All businesses with mixtures classified for their health or physical effects on the market in Spain are encouraged to notify immediately.
Poison centres are bodies established by EU Member States under Article 45 of CLP which disseminate information in the event of poisoning. Businesses must submit information on mixtures classified for their health or physical effects to poison centres in every Member State they operate in.
A recent draft ministerial order proposing an extension to the deadline in Spain was closed for public consultation on 09 June, 2017. If ratified, it would only apply to a narrow subsection of mixtures classified as ‘industrial’.
Like many Member States, Spain has an extremely stringent view of what constitutes an industrial mixture. In general, only those that are used solely in industrial processes or to maintain industrial plants fall into this category. The deadline remains unchanged for professional use mixtures, a broad category comprising the majority of mixtures on the market in Spain.
“Only a relatively narrow spectrum of mixtures are categorised as industrial use, and most businesses will still be subject to the 01 June deadline,” said Larissa Silver, National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC) poison centre technical manager. “Poison centres are a complex topic and it is challenging for businesses to identify the full scope of their responsibilities. Any business that needs to clarify what it should notify and when is welcome to phone the NCEC and we’ll be happy to talk it through with them.”
NCEC is one of the few organisations to have documented notification procedures for all EU Member States. Its consultants are in regular contact with poison centres in Spain and throughout the EU and all information communicated publically is robustly sourced and corroborated. It carries out poison centre notification services on behalf of major global chemical companies, and can help to reduce the time and cost of notification and minimise the risk of non-compliance.
For more information on how NCEC can undertake your poison centre compliance as a
service, our poison centre compliance report or to learn more about our complementary
webinars, please contact [email protected].