CLP Regulation
The CLP Regulation regulates how the chemical products must be classified, packaged and labeled. CLP stands for Classification, Labeling and Packaging. It is a community-wide regulation and develops in the EU the regulations that govern the United Nations-driven international level: the one known as the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) on classification, labeling and packaging of dangerous chemical substances.
The main objective of the CLP regulation is to harmonize the classification of dangerous substances.
Tandem HSE Services for the Application of the CLP and REACH Regulations
Tandem HSE offers you a complete service of evaluation for the correct application of the CLP and REACH regulations. We have engineers and technicians specialized in chemical risk, who can take care of all the obligations of your company about the correct manipulation, packaging and labeling of your substances, including the notification to the community authorities.
The basics of the CLP Regulation
CLP’s main objective is to establish when a substance, as is or mixed with others, has to be considered as dangerous for human health or for the environment.
It is necessary to classify and identify the concrete risks that this substance can cause. Then, those risks must be communicated through a normalized labeling to everyone who could be in contact with the substance during its storage, transport or manipulation.
On the other hand, to ensure that transport and storage are adequate to the substance, rules are issued on how packaging should be produced.
The CLP regulation is a normative regulation of what is known in engineering as “product safety”. Product safety is the discipline that deals with the evaluation and control of all risks associated with the products and the substances that compose them.
Product safety is closely related to the so-called product guardianship, which sets the principles for ethical and responsible management of chemical products. Its philosophy is to ensure that the production and marketing of chemical products are done safely for people and the environment. The principles of safety and prevention must be present throughout the product life cycle: production, use and recycling.
The CLP regulation has meant a great change in the information that must contain the containers of chemical products. The labeling and classification system is much more rigorous than the previous model that existed previously in the European Union.
Chemicals are classified according to their danger in 28 types of hazards. These types, in turn, fall into three large danger groups:
- Dangers for the health.
- Dangers for the environment.
- Dangers for the ozone layer.
Notifications to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)
The people responsible for the manipulation of those dangerous substances must notify the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) how they classified and labeled the substances they have charge of. Any dangerous chemical substance manufactured or imported to the European Union has to follow this regulatory process.
There is a Classification and Labeling Catalog that ECHA publishes and manages. Information on classification and labeling must be provided by all those responsible for manufacturing or importing.
The notification file for registration is made in accordance with the REACH Regulation, which is complementary to the CLP regulation.
The REACH regulation (EC regulation 1907/2006) and it stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals. Its objective is to protect the health of people and any environmental risk posed by the manufacture, sale and handling of dangerous chemicals.
