Services for products containing hazardous substances
The core competence of the office is the evaluation of hazardous substances and biocidal active substances and proposals for alternatives. The office now has many years of experience in data collection, data analysis and well-founded recommendations on the use of hazardous substances and biocides in the private and professional environment.
Sources are the Classification and Labelling Inventory, REACH registration dossiers and the risk assessment reports published as part of the existing biocidal active substance Review Programme. If necessary, we search international databases, scientific journals and specialist literature.
The classification of substances – in the EU it is regulated by the CLP Regulation – can be found in Classification and Labelling Inventory hosted by ECHA. This database contains classification and labelling information on notified and registered substances. Together with information, for example from REACH registration dossiers or test reports, the hazards posed by a substance are analysed. For disinfectants, a calculation algorithm implemented in the WIDES database enables comparisons of hazards with a mouse click. The hazards posed by biocides in cooling systems, façade coatings and rodenticides were investigated with the help of a categorisation scheme (ABC categorisation) taking into account literature data.
This facilitates the selection of less hazardous substances, products or processes and is used by us as a “default assessment” for biocides in evaporative cooling systems, in facade coatings or rodenticides. Because of the substance classification (H-phrases) a substance is assigned a category. A distinction is made between hazards of high concern and less questionable hazards. WIDES provides an ABC categorisation for all listed substances and additionally a (comparative) assessment of the products based on a calculation algorithm that considers the concentration of hazardous substances in the final application solution.