Helsinki, 15 September 2015: SEAC agreed its draft opinion, in support of the proposal by Germany and Norway, to restrict the manufacture, marketing and use of PFOA, its salts and PFOA-related substances, as well as of articles and mixtures containing these substances.

PFOA is a persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance. Such properties may severely and irreversibly affect human health and environment. So PFOA, its salts and PFOA-related substances are listed in the substances of very high concern (SVHC) under REACH Regulation.

PFOA and PFOA-related substances are widely applied for industry and consumer products and there are no safer substitutes in electronic products. RAC adopted the opinion of PFOA proposed restriction that stakeholders doubted the threshold of 2ppb herein on the conference in June 2015. While RAC also took the position to set a higher threshold limit so as to adapt to the execution ability. In the meantime, it agreed no PFOA restriction on low volume products in industrial field, including photolithography and medical devices. The production and use of short chain perfluorochemicals to supersede the above shall obtain support and permit.

Last week, SEAC showed approval on the opinion of the proposed restriction. SEAC held the view that the inclusion of PFOA in Annex XVII under REACH Regulation was the best the way to address the identified risks in terms of the proportionality of its socio-economic benefits to its socio-economic costs provided that the conditions are modified to include higher concentration limits, several additional derogations and a longer transitional period.

The 60-day public consultation on the SEAC draft opinion will end on 16 November 2015. SEAC plans to adopt its final opinion in December 2015.

Reminder: compliance of Annex XVII to REACH Regulation is closely related with the placing on the EU market for products. Any products in violation of REACH are or will be notified and recalled by the European Union. So our suggestion is to learn about the recent news of the regulation to gain more advantages. C&K Testing will keep track on regulation amendments to share the latest news with you as early as possible.

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Further information
ECHA news
Threshold limit for PFOA restriction seems unrealistic in REACH proposal-- News from C&K Testing in June