UNITED NATIONS GLOBALLY HARMONISED SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION AND LABELLING OF CHEMICALS (GHS)

Current System

All over the world there are different laws on how to classify chemicals which can result in the same chemical having different hazard classifications in different countries (eg. a chemical could be labelled toxic in one country and not in another).

The UN has brought together experts from different countries to create the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals and on 20 January 2009 the ‘Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures’ (known as GHS or CLP Regulations) entered into legal effect.

After a transitional period the CLP Regulations will replace :-

· Dangerous Substances Directive (DSD) 67/548/EEC

· Dangerous Preparations Directive (DPD) 1999/45/EC

Transitional Period

CLP Regulations

The majority of the products that Basildon Chemical Co., Ltd. supply are mixtures and therefore are not affected by the CLP Regulations until 1 June 2015.

The few products on our range that are substances are being reviewed and will be compliant with the CLP Regulations by 1 December 2010. As soon as these products have been re-classified, the containers will be labelled according to the CLP Regulations and a new MSDS will be sent out.

(Please note that there are certain limited circumstances where the transitional arrangements for substances and mixtures can be extended. The re-labelling and re-packaging of substances and mixtures which are already in the supply chain on the above compliance dates, may be postponed until 1 December 2012 and 1 June 2017 respectively.)

The CLP Regulations can be viewed and downloaded from this website :–

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:353:0001:1355:en:PDF