13 March 2019, the European Chemicals Agency, has published proposals for three chemicals to be identified as SVHC and launched a public comment, which will end at 29 April, 2019. If a substance is identified as an SVHC, it will be added to the Candidate List for eventual inclusion in the Authorisation List. The information of the three substances is as follows: ...

26 February 2018, the American Apparel & Footwear Association released the 20th edition of the Restricted Substance List (RSL), the industry’s chemical management resource listing banned or restricted chemicals and substances for finished apparel, footwear, and home textile products around the world. ...

11 January 2018, the Official Journal of European Union issues the Directive (EU) 2019/37, amending and correcting the Annex I and Annex III of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. Plastic materials and articles complying with Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 as applicable before the entry into force of this Directive may be placed on the market until 31 January 2020 and may remain on the market until exhaustion of stocks. This Regulation shall enter into force on 31 January 2019. ...

16 January 2019, ECHA added 10 new substances to the Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs). The authorization now contains 197 substances. The new substances to the Candidate List possess the carcinogenic, toxic to reproduction, persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) properties. Following are the substances included in the Candidate List for authorization on 15 January 2019 and their SVHC properties. ...

28 December, 2018, the Massachusetts legislature passed the bill H 5024 to ban 11 flame retardants, effective from 1 January, 2019. The sale or manufacture of bedding, carpeting, children's products, residential upholstered furniture and window treatments containing more than 1,000 ppm of the following substances in any component part of the product to be banned.Bans on flame retardants similar to those in Massachusetts have taken effect in other states. ...

On 2 January 2019, the OEKO-TEX® Association has, as usual, updated the applicable test criteria and limit values for product certification in accordance with the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®. The following new regulations will come into force on 01 April 2019 for all certifications, following a three-month transition period. In 2019, OEKO-TEX® already complies with the new "REACH Annex XVII CMR Legislation". The substance benzene and four amine salts have been included in the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® and LEATHER STANDARD by OEKO-TEX® and limit values have been defined. ...

17 December 2018, the Official Journal of European issue the directive (EU) 2018/2005, amended the annex XVII of RAECH regulation. This Directive shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States, and will enter into force on 7 January 2019. Entry 51 of Annex XVII to REACH Regulation is replaced by the following: ...

18 December 2018, the Official Journal of European released the directive (EU) 2018/2013, identified 1,7,7-trimethyl-3-(phenylmethylene) bicycle [2.2.1] heptan-2-one (3-benzylidene camphor) as a substance of very high concern according to Article 57(f) of REACH Regulation. 3-benzylidene camphor has endocrine interference properties and may cause serious impact on the environment. It will be added to the candidate list of SVHC later. ...

12 December 2018, ECHA issued a notice to conduct public consultation on the amendment of annex XIV of REACH Regulation to the list of four phthalates authorized for their endocrine disrupting properties. The deadline for comments is 12 March 2019. These four phthalates have previously been identified as substances of very high concern (SVHCs) due to their reprotoxic and endocrine disrupting properties. ...

21 November 2018, EU released 18 directives to amend the exemption for lead content in the Annex III of EU RoHS Regulation. This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The detail of the amending is as follows: ...