After many delays, the first version of the Classification & Labelling (C&L) Inventory has now been made available by ECHA. There has been much speculation over what information this first version of the C&L Inventory will contain, and how this information should be used. This article aims to shed some light on these issues.

Firstly, it is important to note that the C&L Inventory does not cover every substance on the European market, only those for which notification to the C&L Inventory is required. The published C&L Inventory includes:

• Substances for which a harmonised classification has been agreed – this may be a full classification for all hazard endpoints for the substance, or may only cover some hazard endpoints, and self-classification by suppliers for all other endpoints will be required;
• Substances which have been registered under REACH and classified as hazardous in accordance with Article 119(1) of the REACH Regulation, as amended;
• Other hazardous substances which are below the REACH registration threshold, whether manufactured or imported alone as a substance, or as part of a hazardous mixture.

Registered substances which do not meet the criteria of the amended Article 119(1), i.e. substances which are not classified as hazardous for any of the specified endpoints are not included in the first version of the C&L Inventory. This is an important point, and will be explored further later in this article. Information on the classification of such registered substances can however still be obtained using the disseminated database of registered substances, also available through the ECHA website. ECHA intend to include these substances in a future version of the C&L Inventory.

Also not included in the C&L Inventory are substances not classified as hazardous which are manufactured or imported below the REACH registration threshold of 1 tonne per year, as these need not be notified to the C&L Inventory.

The C&L Inventory will not provide information on the classification and labelling of formulated mixtures, i.e. mixtures created where two or more substances are deliberately mixed together.

Using the C&L Inventory

When searching the Inventory, it is likely that the user will find multiple classifications for the same substance.

In some cases this may be justified, due to the substance being placed on the market with different impurities that affect classification, or in different physical states.

In many cases though, differences in classification are due to users having different sets of data on which to base their classification, or simply making errors in assigning classifications, and label elements.

The first version of the C&L Inventory also includes many entries where notifiers have made errors in their notification, such as spelling mistakes, incorrect pictogram selected or forgotten, etc.

A further flaw is that, as mentioned above, the first version of the publicly available inventory only includes those substances with hazards listed in Article 119(1), that is, those hazards which equate to the old Dangerous Substances Directive. Other substances for which notification is required, such as registered substances not classified as hazardous, or classified only in the additional hazard classes introduced in CLP, such as Corrosive to Metals, are not included although it is planned that they will be included in a future update to the C&L Inventory.

This can result in a misleading situation where the agreed classification of not hazardous according to CLP, submitted for a registered substance does not appear in the C&L Inventory, while other classifications suggesting the substance is hazardous will appear in the Inventory. Sodium chloride is such a case where the agreed classification in the registration dossier is ‘not classified’ but this does not appear in the C&L Inventory, instead there are six different hazard classifications that have been submitted by other notifiers of this substance.

So how should the C&L Inventory be used? The answer is with caution. Be wary of taking the easy routes, such as

• Agreeing with the majority – there is no guarantee that they are correct, and they are often wrong
• Agreeing with the most severe hazard classification – this may be the safe option for lawyers, but is scientifically invalid and may cause many problems for suppliers and their customers
• Agreeing with the least strict – this may be tempting, but is less so when those suggesting 'not classified' are not listed

So what then is the answer?  Firstly, it is a good idea to look for 'joint entries' that indicates information from registration dossiers and then perhaps to check back by viewing the disseminated dossiers. Where a substance has a well known name or identification number it may be easier to use the search function on the ECHA homepage which searches across all the various ECHA databases, including both the disseminated dossiers and the C&L Inventory, rather than using the more specific search tools on the C&L Inventory page.

You also need to go back to basics  and check other information sources such as ESIS and other national data bases (the eChemPortal site is useful for this), searching other SDS, and using your skills to gauge the suitability and reliability of the classifications based on this available data.

As time goes by, and more substances are registered through the REACH process, and groups of manufacturers and importers come together to agree classifications, the quality of information in the C&L Inventory is expected to improve. Until then the C&L Inventory is only one more tool and is not the answer.