The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) released guidance on the application of classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP) criteria on its official website on November 13, 2024. Unlike the single document versions released from 2009 to 2024, the new guidance is divided into five separate documents, covering overview, general principles of classification and labeling, physical hazards, health hazards, environmental hazards, and other hazards.
Section 3.11 presents guidelines for the new risk class of endocrine disrupting HH, Section 4.2 presents guidelines for endocrine disrupting environmental hazards, and Section 4.3 presents guidelines for persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT)/highly persistent and highly bioaccumulative (vPvB) and persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT)/highly persistent and highly mobile (vPvM).
The first part deals with general principles of classification and labelling, and contains no significant changes in content compared to previous editions, mainly discussing the responsibilities of classifiers, the substances and mixtures to be classified, required information, classification lists, typical concentration limits and methods of classifying mixtures.
The second part, dealing with physical hazards, contains significant updates to all risk categories due to changes such as the 12th ATP and updates to the guidance. It introduces a new part 2.17 on insensitive explosives, which can only be reclassified from the "explosives" category through weakening or desensitization, and their classification is mutually exclusive with explosives. In addition to basic information on classification and labeling, the guidance also clarifies that insensitive explosives do not belong to transport risk classes, and they must be transported under specific UN numbers in either class 3 (liquids) or class 4.1 (solids).
Parts 3 to 5 mainly provide guidance on endocrine disruptors and new hazard classifications for PBT/vPvB and PMT/vPvM, further clarify statements in the CLP standards and provide some classification examples. ED HH refers to substances that can disrupt the human endocrine system, and classification should consider effects on the thyroid, reproduction, and development. All information relevant to determining ED ENV should be considered, including the relevant aquatic toxicity standard, information from other aquatic or non-aquatic species, and information related to human health endocrine disruption. However, even if a substance disrupts human health endocrinology, it does not necessarily disrupt the environment. PBT/vPvB and PMT/vPvM
