Guidance to Registrants on Methods for the Identification of Petroleum UVCB Substances for REACH

Report no. 4/26: EU REACH Regulation No. 1907/2006 covering the production and use of chemical substances and their potential impacts on human health and the environment came into force in 2007. Annex VI of this regulation contains information on the type of information on substance identity which registrants should provide in the dossiers which they submit to ECHA.

Since the introduction of REACH, Concawe has provided guidance to member companies on the type of analytical information which should be generated for the identification of petroleum & hydrocarbon UVCB substances and on the methods which should be employed to generate this information. ECHA has always encouraged the use of industry standard methods for substance identification purposes to ensure comparability of compositional information between different registrations, and the Concawe guidance has therefore always recommended the use of such methods (e.g. ISO; EN; ASTM; IP). These methods have been developed and validated by the petroleum industry and therefore provide directly comparable data on substances manufactured by different registrants and analysed in different laboratories. Moreover, they are accepted by customers and competent authorities as a good technical basis for confirming product quality and assessing potential health, safety and environmental hazards associated with these materials.

Annex VI of the REACH Regulation has been revised and, given the current requirements relevant to UVCB substances, this report describes the information which registrants should now provide in Sections 1.2 and 1.4 of the IUCLID registration dossier for substance identification purposes; and lists the specific industry standard methods which should be employed to generate this information.