The time has come to start preparing for pre-registration under REACH. Prepare yourself! Pre-registration begins on 1 June 2008 and continues until 1 December 2008. The European Chemicals Agency, ECHA, is now in the process of getting ready to receive registrations on chemicals and a number of tools have been developed to help manufacturers and importers.

Before the pre-registration you should form a general view of:

• Chemicals, that are critical to your business
• Which of your chemicals, that are affected by REACH

In this connection you should get in touch with your suppliers to inquire whether they are prepared to pre-register in order to continue your supply of chemicals.

DHI has developed the software tool ChemManager® which will supply you with an overview of your data on chemical suppliers and clients:

• Organise your chemical data in ChemBase®
• Analyse how your business will be affected by the new chemicals registration with REACH Compliance®
• Communicate with your suppliers with REACH Communication®

At the moment more than 100 users in 60 different companies are using ChemManager.

A free demo of ChemManager is available. In addition we offer one-hour webinars every week. A webinar is a demonstration on the internet combined with a conference call. You log on from your own pc and are guided through the program by our experts. At the webinar you will get a better idea of how ChemManager can assist your business with the requirements in REACH.

Contact: chemmanager@dhigroup.com or Lisbeth Mygind at lm@dhigroup.com

For further information on ChemManager read here. www.chemmanager.com

For more information on REACH and pre-registration read here.

DHI is part of a Danish consortium which has just won a project concerning nano materials. The consortium is to analyse the need for guidelines for marketing of products based on nano materials and better consumer information on the health and environmental impacts and risks of nano materials.

DHI’s Centre for Environment and Toxicology will contribute with our unique knowledge on chemical substances and products, including our experience of risk assessments. The existing Danish regulation on classification and labelling does not cover the particular properties of nano materials, and consequently there is a need for more and better information to the consumers.

Experts in industry expect that within the next 5-10 years up to half of all new products will be based on nano technology.

Besides DHI, the new consortium consists of the Danish Standards Association and SPC Strategic Partnering and Communication. The consortium was appointed by the Danish EPA after an invitation to tender.

Contact:

Henriette Christiansen
Email: hc@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9030

Enzymes hold great promise as biocidal active substances. Several enzymes have well-documented antimicrobial efficacy, and some are even now used against higher organisms like barnacles and algae. The safety of enzymes for the user and for the environment is much greater than for most "traditional" chemicals. In October 2007 the DHI hosted a mini-symposium on enzymes as substitutes for undesirable chemicals.

Read more here.

The use of silver as a disinfectant is increasing. Products using silver includes washing machines which releases silver ions to the rinsing water. The use of silver as a disinfectant is well-known and as such not new technology. However, washing machines with silver ions result in environmental impacts as silver is a very toxic heavy metal for organisms living in water.

Swedish authorities evaluate silver
In the EU the use of silver as a disinfectant is regulated by the Biocidal Products Directive (Directive 98/8/EC). At the moment the Swedish Chemicals Agency is evaluating the use of silver as a biocidal disinfectant for the EU. The evaluation is expected to be finalised by the end of 2008. If silver is approved as a biocidal active substance, the use of silver in washing machines and other consumer products must be approved by the Danish authorities before products are marketed in Denmark.

In the USA silver ions in washing machines are classed as pesticides and must be registered according to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Contact:

Stephen Wessels
Email: sww@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9162

For more information on DHI and biocidal products read here

EFSA (the European Food Safety Authority) has issued a dossier warning to industry. Due to a lack of information submitted to EFSA, some 300 dossiers relating to nutrient substances in supplements and foods in the EU may not be assessed.

EFSA has issued a stern warning to industry that if further information did not come forward before the entrance to 2008 these 300 nutrients will not be assessed.

A spokesperson said: "In many cases the dossiers related to the same or similar substance, but they were filed by different companies or intended for different uses. For some of these dossiers further information has been requested from the applicant, in other cases opinions have already been delivered."

The 300 dossiers under dispute contained basic one page submissions, in most cases only the name of the substance was provided together with a statement about how it had been sold for several years without any apparent side effects.

Contact DHI if you need more information on how to submit dossiers with sufficient data.

Contact:

Helle Buchardt Boyd
Email: hbb@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9097

Source: Nutra Ingredients
http://www.nutraingredients.com

Manufacturers of juice and young wines had better watch out for those bees and wasps trying to get a last sip of the fruit. For consumers drinking a glass of juice or young wine with wasp or bee venom may turn into a near fatal experience.

A Spanish group of researchers investigated 5 cases of patients who showed symptoms after drinking grape juice or newly pressed wines. Three of the patients had oral allergy syndrome and facial flushing, one had asthmatic symptoms, and one had anaphylaxis. Allergy to sulfites had been ruled out.

After finding that the patients were sensitized to bee and/or wasp venoms, the researchers found venom allergens in grape juice and freshly pressed wines. Aged wines were found to be less prone to contain these venoms.

Contact:

Helle Buchardt Boyd
Email: hbb@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9097

Source: Armentia et al.

Many leather goods contain high levels of chromium (VI). As a result, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) recommends strictly limiting levels in leather goods like gloves, shoes or watch straps which come into direct contact with the skin.

Hexavalent chromium is a strong allergen and it can lead to allergic skin reactions like contact eczema in sensitised individuals. The substance was detected in more than half the leather goods examined. In one sixth of the leather goods tested the levels were higher than 10 milligram per kilogram leather. In Germany more than half a million people react sensitively to the substance. Hence BfR proposes restricting the use of chromium salts in leather production as far as possible or technically reducing their concentrations during processing to such an extent that chromium (VI) can no longer be detected in the end product.

Contact:

Lise Møller
Email: lmm@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9133

Read the article in full here.

The Swedish and Norwegian food authorities have tested how well the standard testing method of lead-glazed ceramics compares with real-life exposure.

The results show that the standard method performs well, but that certain foods like lemon tea under realistic time/temperature conditions pick up just as much lead as the standard test simulant: 4% acetic acid.

Red wine, orange juice, coffee, tea with lemon and water were used as test simulants and compared with the standard test solution of 4 % acetic acid. Red wine was stored for 24 hours, which is equal to the standard method (using acetic acid). For orange juice a longer storage time of 72 hours at 8° C was chosen, while for coffee and lemon tea, 30 minutes at 80° C was chosen. Orange juice and red wine both extracted approximately 20-30 % of lead, relative to 4 % acetic acid at standard conditions. The longer time period using orange juice at low temperature gave similar results. Unexpected results were found for tea with lemon, which extracted approximately the same amount of lead as 4 % acetic acid in a short time at high temperature. Coffee, which has a higher pH than lemon tea, was a weaker extractant at the same conditions.

The implications of these tests are that 4 % acetic acid in most cases are a realistic worst case extractant, although attention should be paid to other realistic test simulants, such as different beverages, tested under realistic conditions.

Risk assessments show that intake of half a liter of drink containing lead at the limit value (4 mg Pb/l) will lead to an exposure about 10 times higher than the tolerable intake. This leads to the conclusion that the present limit does not offer sufficient protection for the consumer.

Contact:

Helle Buchardt Boyd
Email: hbb@dhigroup.com
Tel.: +45 4516 9097

Source: Report from Livsmedelsverket 19-2007: Lead extracted from ceramics under household conditions

DHI
Centre for Environment and Toxicology

Agern Allé 5
2970 Hørsholm
Denmark

Tel: +45 4516 9200.
Fax: +45 4516 9292

www.dhigroup.com