On April 6 2022, ECHA and the Member States have assessed a group of 148 bisphenols and recommended that more than 30 bisphenols need to be restricted due to their potential hormonal or reprotoxic effects. Many bisphenols are known endocrine disrupters both for human health and the environment and may lead to exposures to both professionals and consumers. Bisphenols are mostly used as intermediates in the manufacture of polymers or polymer resins, such as polycarbonate plast...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a second round of test orders under section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to obtain additional data on eight of the next 20 chemicals undergoing risk evaluation. After reviewing reasonably available data on these chemicals, EPA has determined additional data are needed and is using its TSCA test order authority to require companies to develop and submit information on avian and aquatic environmental haz...

In 2021, through on-site inspection and laboratory testing, Shanghai Customs had effectively implemented the quality and safety inspection and supervision of imported consumer goods at Shanghai ports, and effectively guaranteed the safety and health of consumers. The relevant unqualified cases found by Shanghai Customs in the quality and safety inspection of imported and exported commodities are hereby released. Case 1: Continuous detection of unqualified adult clothing of B...

China has proposed to update the GB/T 26572-2011 Requirements of Concentration Limits for Certain Restricted Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products by adding the requirements on the concentration limits of 4 more harmful substances, including DEHP, BBP, DBP and DIBP. The revision is expected to be completed at the end of September 2022. As the most common plasticizer, phthalate acid esters are widely used in the manufacturing of electrical and electronic products....

Brief Introduction The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is an Indian national standards and certification authority established under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 (The BIS Act, 2016). Its main tasks are to formulate and implement national standards, implement conformity assessment systems, and manage BIS certification. Product certification in India basically implements the principle of voluntary certification, but considering factors such as public health and sa...

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (hereinafter referred to as BfR) is an agency directly under the federal government, which is mainly responsible for identifying and assessing safety risks in food, chemicals, and consumer products (including food contact materials, cosmetics, toys, textiles, and tobacco, etc.). And provide risk management decision-makers with scientific advice on avoiding and reducing risks (including formulating risk limit recommendations)....

On August 11, 2020, France published Order of August 5, 2020 to regulate food contact rubber materials and articles, as well as pacifiers for young children (‘new Order’). the main contents are as follows. Effective date This regulation takes effect on July 1, 2021, replacing and repealing the Order of November 9, 1994 relating to rubber materials and articles in contact with foodstuffs, food products and drinks. Transition period Before the new regulations come into for...

On 16 November 2021, the European Commission published the Implementing Decision EU 2021/1992 with toy standards EN 71-2, EN 71-3, EN 71-4 and EN 71-13 updated to the latest versions. The current versions will be superseded from 15 May 2022. Details are as follows: Standard Name Latest Standard Existing Standard Date of Withdrawal Safety of toys – Part 2: Flammability EN 71-2:2020 EN 71-2:2011+A1:2014 15 May 2022 Safety of toys – Part 3: Migration of certain elements EN...

July – September 2021, the European Commission validated 1176 RASFF notifications , including 1033 notifications on food, accounting for 87.84%; 67 notifications on feed, accounting for 5.70%; 76 notifications on food contact materials (FCMs), accounting for 6.46%. 44 of the FCM products are from China, accounting for 57.89%. There are more details on FCM notifications as below: Date Reference Notified by Product Subject Action Taken Notification Basis Risk Decision 28 SEP...

6 Aug. 2021, EU Commission has released the Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1297 of 4 August 2021 amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards perfluorocarboxylic acids containing 9 to 14 carbon atoms in the chain (C9-C14 PFCAs), their salts and C9-C14 PFCA-related substances. The regulation will take effect the 20th day after its release. In Annex XVII, entry 68 is replaced by the following: 68. Linear and bran...

Recently, Amazon has strictly inspected declaration of REACH conformity or heavy metal testing reports of Amazon Europe products. Products that have not submitted relevant documents within the specified time will face the risk of being suppressed. Earlier, Amazon issued an important notice requiring sellers to provide declaration of REACH conformity or heavy metal testing reports. The notice states that if you sell products on Amazon Europe, you must comply with all applicab...

April – June 2021, the European Commission validated 1120 RASFF notifications , including 1003 notifications on food, accounting for 89.55%; 56 notifications on feed, accounting for 5%; 61 notifications on food contact materials (FCMs), accounting for 5.45%. 28 of the FCM products are from China, accounting for 45.90%. The prime hazards for FCMs are migration of elements. There are more details on FCM notifications as below: Date Reference Notified by Product Subject Actio...

From December 1, 2020, the new national standards for coatings, inks, adhesives and cleaning agents have been officially implemented. The implementation and supervision of the new national standard has played an important role in China's environmental protection, and can also further regulate the healthy development of the industry. The new national standards not only control domestic coatings, imported coatings are also the subject of supervision by Chinese customs. Recentl...

On March 12 2021, Xinsha Customs has detected 2 batches of imported coatings with hazardous substances exceeding the standards and the customs has issued "Inspection and Quarantine Processing Notice" for return processing in accordance with regulations. The Customs inspected the two batches of coatings on site and sent them to the laboratory for testing. It was found that the total content of glycol ethers and ether esters, and the total content of polycyclic aromatic hydroc...

January – March 2021, the European Commission validated 1053 RASFF notifications , including 968 notifications on food, accounting for 91.93%; 50 notifications on feed, accounting for 4.75%; 35 notifications on food contact materials (FCMs), accounting for 3.32%. 27 of the FCM products are from China, accounting for 77.14%. The prime hazards for FCMs are migration of elements. There are more details on FCM notifications as below: Date Reference Notified by Product Subject...

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in conjunction with CBP, is expanding the roll out of Two Way Messaging to all commercial brokers on March 22, 2021. All products within their jurisdiction will be marked for review. The CPSC has been upgraded to a participating government agency (PGA), participating in customs declaration, and adding new regulations: even if the imported goods pass the declaration, if the CPSC does not release, they can’t be sold and can onl...

In February 2021, the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH) announced the organization’s 2021 update to their Model Toxics in Packaging Legislation. The update includes the addition of the class of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and ortho-phthalates as regulated chemicals, as well as new processes and criteria for identifying and regulating additional chemicals of high concern in packaging. The previous (prior to 2021) TPCH Model Legislation and la...

Recently, in the No. 3 Announcement of 2021 jointly issued by the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation, GB 31604.52-2021 "National Food Safety Standard Food Contact Materials and Products Determination of migration of primary aromatic amines" was officially released. This standard uses liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to detect the migration of 29 primary aromatic amines in food contact materials, and is suitable for foo...

Asbestos Asbestos is a general term for natural fibrous siliceous minerals. It belongs to silicates. It is a substance with a fibrous crystal structure, containing magnesium, iron, aluminum, sodium and other oxides and bound silica. It is very solid, and has the properties of fire resistance, corrosion resistance, heat preservation, etc., and the price is low. However, asbestos has been included in the list of first-level carcinogens by the WHO. This is because although asbe...

On March 15, 2021, Shanghai Customs held a press conference and announced that Shanghai Customs carried out risk monitoring on five categories of 199 batches of imported baby consumer products in 2020, including children's scooters, baby clothing, baby food contact products, baby diapers, and stationery, 95 batches of unqualified batches were detected, with an overall disqualification rate of 47.7%. The security situation is not optimistic. Among them, 10 batches of children...