ECHA recommends new substance of very high concern

A majority of member state chemical experts have recommended that the acrylate HDDA should be classed as a substance of very high concern under the REACH chemicals regulation.

But a dissenting minority view has also been forwarded to the European Commission.

A majority on the European Chemicals Agency member state committee agreed with Sweden’s proposal that HDDA, a skin sensitiser, posed an equivalent level of concern to carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction (CMR) substances. This was because of the “severity and irreversibility of the skin sensitisation caused by HDDA”, the agency said on Monday.