EU Biocides Regulation

New EU Regulation (EU) 528/2012 on biocides applies from 1st September 2013. Existing EU Directive 98/8/EC is repealed from that date. See here for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) approval process for the active biocidal substance.

A dedicated IT platform (the Register of Biocidal Products) will be used for submitting applications, as well as recording decisions and disseminating information to the public. The new Regulation is also the first piece of EU legislation to incorporate the new European Commission definition of nanomaterials.

NB: the Regulation text creates an EU-wide authorisation of biocidal products that allows companies to place their products on the entire EU market.

The text of the EU Regulation is found here.

Information on the UK authorisation process is found here.

Planning Policy Guidance Query

New home for the National Planning Policy Framework (and new supporting planning practice guidance) for England. See here. Existing guidance will not be cancelled until the new planning practice guidance is published in its final form.

WEEE Directive Query

European Directive 2012/19/EU is a recast of existing Directive 2002/96/EC (as amended). The main changes include:
(a) introduction of higher Member State collection and recovery targets,
(b) all EEE will be covered (except listed product),
(c) an “authorised representative” will be able to fulfil the obligations of the producer.

The existing Directive 2002/96/EC (as amended) is repealed from 15 February 2014.

See here for the latest on implementation in the UK.

Connected on Twitter

Our new Twitter account, @CardinalEnv_EHS is now live!

Offshore Oil & Gas Safety

New safety regulations for the offshore oil & gas sector – for the US click here – for the EU see here.

In the US, there are amended safety rules and a mandated safety management system (SEMS) which all operators must adopt. Also the first round of verification of SEMS assessments is due in November 2013.

In the EU, a new European Directive will oblige rig operators and oil & gas operators to prepare safety reports to prevent major accidents and minimise their consequences. European companies involved in major accidents overseas will be required to report the circumstances in their country of domicile. Also, any operator or rig owner working in European waters will have their corporate global safety policy subject to local regulator scrutiny.

Timber Regulations

The EU FAO Flegt library is a good source of relevant current documents.
See also the UK Central Point of Expertise for Timber Procurement (CPET) – this is funded by UK DEFRA (a government department).

Fire Safety Websites

101 fantastic fire safety websites (courtesy of the content team at OnlineFireSafetyDegree.org, thank you Kate) – http://onlinefiresciencedegree.org/safety/

Montreal Protocol

Here is the draft Decision XXV(J) relating to HFCs for consideration at the 25th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Bangkok, 21-25th October 2013 (page 9 of the UNEP document) – click here to view the pre-session document. We will update this post when more information is available.

Here is the US EPA summary of this submission (on HFCs) which provides background – click here to view the US EPA background document.

Chemical Plant Safety

Here is the US White House Press Release.
Here is the associated fact sheet.

EU Priority Substances

Here is the EU Press Release – we said we would update this post when further information came available.

Update: European Directive (2013/39/EU) is now enacted – Member States have until 14th September 2015 to implement the changes.