On May 4, 2017, Germany's federal environment agency (UBA) launched a proposal to include “persistent, mobile and toxic substances (PMTs)” or “persistent and mobile substances (PMs)” into REACH's candidate list, which is general known as SVHC.

UBA defines mobile chemicals as substances that can reach the drinking water source through the water cycle, without binding to solid substances such as sand and activated carbon. These substances can break through natural barriers like shore zones of rivers and lakes and cannot be removed by artificial filtration through the water supply system.

UBA also pointed out that REACH’s current assessment of substances for their persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) only involve chemicals that are bioaccumulative and may be absorbed from food. Therefore, the department believes that Article 57 of the REACH Regulation should be amended to allow PMTs and PMs to qualify as substances of very high concern (SVHCs).

If a substance has high mobility, exposure concentrations in the environment, including groundwater and drinking water concentrations, will be greatly influenced. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) said that the mobility of a substance is “implicitly included” in quantitative risk assessment at present.

Per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) are the most typical chemicals with mobile properties. Once the proposal is approved, even if the bioaccumulative properties of a substance cannot be verified, it can be added to the substances of high concern because of its mobile properties, achieving the purpose of controlling risks and protecting the health of human as well as the environment.

For the majority of enterprises, this proposal means that more substances will be included in the SVHC list, so companies need to increase their cost to fulfill the responsibility and obligation of SVHC. C&K Testing informs companies of paying close attention to the development of the regulation revising so as to respond in time.

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