The European Chemicals Agency recommends that seven chemical substances of very high concern should not be used without specific authorisation. Three of the recommended substances are classified as toxic to reproduction, one as carcinogenic and three fulfil the criteria for being persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB). They are all used in products to which consumers and workers are exposed.

The Member State Committee of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) adopted an opinion sharing the ECHA Secretariat's view that seven substances of very high concern should be included in the so-called Authorisation List. The opinion was adopted by consensus. The Agency will finalise its recommendation on these substances, taking into account the Opinion of the Member State Committee, and submit it to the European Commission by 1 June 2009.

Over 570 representatives of stakeholders from 33 countries (ranging from the EU Member States to India, Korea and the USA) participated in the European Chemicals Agency's (ECHA) second Stakeholders´ Day. Over 300 were present at the Conference Centre in Helsinki and a further 270 joined in via webstream. The participants discussed the urgent need for companies to work together and share data in order to prepare joint dossiers for the registration of each chemical substance.

REACH-EN-FORCE-1, a joint REACH enforcement project, has started across Europe. National inspectors are checking pre-registrations, registrations and-where applicable-the provisions for Safety Data Sheets. The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement, meeting for the fourth time this week in Helsinki, reviewed the start of the project and agreed on the further steps.

REACH GLOBAL SERVICES S.A. will attend "Chemspec Europe 2009" fair which will take place on 17th-18th June 2009 in Barcelona, SPAIN.

REACH GLOBAL SERVICES S.A. will attend "Beautyworld 2009" fair which will take place on 7th-9th June 2009 in Dubai.

An updated version of the List of Pre-registered Substances was published today on the ECHA website. It contains around 143,000 substances which were pre-registered by 65,000 companies between 1 June and 1 December 2008. ECHA does not expect all of these substances to be registered.

ECHA has published a REACH Fact Sheet providing registrants top tips on how to get started in SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Fora). SIEFs have a critical role within REACH and ECHA wants to do what it can to try to ensure that they succeed in sharing and assessing data as well as preparing the common parts of the registration. At the same time, the Agency would like to remind companies that SIEFS are independent - they are not "owned" by ECHA.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) organised a workshop to discuss the implementation of the Authorisation process under REACH on 21-22 January 2009. It was attended by representatives of the Agency, EU Member States and the European Commission.

ECHA has updated REACH-IT by adding an online inquiry submission functionality and a functionality to change legal entity names in the system. Documentation is also published to assist companies with the online inquiry and the change in legal entity name. In addition, REACH-IT can now be accessed by Member States Competent Authorities that fulfill ECHA's standard security requirements. In addition, ECHA has published an Industry User Manual outlining the checks that the Agency makes immediately after a dossier has been received.