Inspectors examined 1,597 mixtures across the participating countries to verify compliance with the obligation to notify hazardous mixtures to national poison centres, a requirement intended to ensure that emergency responders have rapid access to composition information during accidental exposure incidents. In 15% of the inspected products, the mandatory Unique Formula Identifier, a 16-character code printed on the label that allows poison centres to instantly identify a mixture, was found to be missing altogether, compounding the risk that notification gaps already pose.

Where non-compliance was identified, the most common enforcement response was written advice to the company involved, followed by verbal warnings and administrative orders; financial penalties were applied in a smaller share of cases, and several instances resulted in criminal complaints that remained under investigation at the time of reporting. Chris Van den hole, who chaired the working group behind the project, warned that missing or incomplete notifications directly undermine the effectiveness of emergency medical response, since poison centre staff may be unable to quickly identify the exact composition of a product a patient has been exposed to.

The project forms part of ECHA Forum's ongoing programme of coordinated enforcement actions across Member States, and its findings are likely to inform future compliance priorities for national inspectorates, particularly around UFI labelling, an area where the relatively high 15% non-compliance rate suggests continued gaps in industry practice despite the requirement having been in force for several years.

#ChemicalSafety #EUChemicalsLegislation #REACH