Europe Nickel Release for Children's Jewelry

The children's Jewelry is one of high demand for retailers such as clothes chain store, because the children fashion trend.

Nickel release is used in metal alloy for corrosion resistance. Dermatitis can be occurred if there is long skin contact with nickel.

From REACH Annex XVII in Europe:

Prolonged contact with the skin is defined as contact with the skin to articles containing nickel of potentially more than

• 10 minutes on three or more occasions within two weeks, or
• 30 minutes on one or more occasions within two weeks.

The skin contact time of 10 minutes applies when there are three or more occasions of skin contacts within a two-week time period. The skin contact time of 30 minutes applies when there is at least one occasion within a two-week time period.

• Non-body piercing
  ≤ 0.5 μg/cm²/week limit
  

  Pass if	Fail if
  < 0.88 μg/cm²/week	≥ 0.88 μg/cm²/week

• For body piercing
  < 0.2 μg/cm²/week limit:
  

  Pass if	Fail if
  < 0.35 μg/cm²/week	≥ 0.35 μg/cm²/week

Total Lead Content in Europe REACH

In additional to Jewelry and its' component, the articles or accessible parts which may be placed in the
mouth by children should not have lead content more than 0.05%

Chromium VI in Leather REACH Annex XVII

Chromium based tanning is still an important technical process to convert animal raw hide to leather. Even if chromium VI salts and acids may not be involved in the tanning process nowadays, it is a common phenomenon that chromium III compounds undergo chemical conversion in the tanned leather.

From 1 May 2015, Chromium VI (REACH Annex XVII, Entry 47) should be less than 3 mg/kg in

• Leather articles coming into contact with skin
• Articles containing leather parts coming into contact with the skin

REACH SVHC Article definition

Current ECHA guidance regarding calculation of the 0.1% threshold would regard only a selling unit as a complete article. So the complete article approach is currently not only that of ECHA but also that of most other EU-Nations.

A simple illustration of both principles of belt containing a buckle and a strap is shown below:

According to the “once an article always an article approach,” before the belt was manufactured, the strap was an article and the buckle was an article. Therefore if the SVHC was present above 0.1% in the strap, the SVHC obligations would apply irrespective of the weight of the buckle. If the current ECHA guideline is followed, the weight of the buckle is changing the weight distribution so that the SVHC share of the Article “Belt” stays below 0.1% and the obligation for information does not apply.

Irrespective to the approach for calculating SVHC content the guidance document, issued by the six dissenting nations, contains useful information and supplies worked examples of how to calculate the overall weight of chemicals present for a whole range of consumer items from printed T – Shirts; Electrical Cables; Desktop Computers, Kitchenware etc.

Bureau Veritas will inform clients of developments in this area since in the longer term the current situation has to be resolved by the members of the European Union.

http://www.kemi.se/Documents/Forfattningar/Reach/Guidance_for_suppliers_of_articles_EN.pdf

韓國REACH來襲

2013年4月30日，韓國化學品註冊與評估草案（Draft Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals 又稱化評法或K-REACH）通過韓國國會，計畫將於2014年5月1日生效，2015年1月1日正式實施。韓國REACH是繼歐盟REACH之後，又一部具有國際影響力的化學品管理法案的誕生。該法案的通過與實施，將對全球化學品行業造成巨大影響。
K-REACH採用類似歐盟REACH法規的登記、評估、授權和限制要求對新化學物質、現有化學物質和下游產品進行管理，對於韓國境外的化學品供應商，法案同樣要求通過韓國境內的唯一代表(OR)完成登記。
K-REACH對企業的要求主要涉及以下幾個方面：
■備案：化學品的生產商、進口商、下游使用者需要每年通報新化學物質和現有化學物質（>1噸/年）的噸位和使用資訊。
■登記：生產或進口新化學物質或優先評估物質（>1噸/年）的企業需要提交登記。
■風險評估：生產或進口化學物質噸位大於10噸/年，需要對化學物質進行風險評估並提供風險評估報告，對於噸位低於100噸/年的化學物質，將給予一定的緩衝期：10～20噸/年，緩衝期為5年;20～50噸/年，緩衝期為4年;50～70噸/年，緩衝期為3年;70～100噸/年，緩衝期為2年。
■供應鏈管理：化學品企業應保持化學物質資訊在供應鏈上向上下游傳遞。
■消費品：對特定的消費品要進行風險評估，如空氣清新劑、除臭劑等。
■物品中有害物質通報：若產品中有害物質含量＞1噸/年或者濃度高於0.1%時，應通報該物品中有害物質資訊。
雖然韓國REACH採用歐盟REACH法規的模式對化學物質進行管理，但二者仍有許多不同之處，需要企業引起注意。