Israel has notified a new “REACH” draft law to the WTO on January 6, 2021. The “Industrial Chemicals Registering Law, no 5781-2020″ establishes a new mechanism aiming to reduce harmful effects to humans and the environment from chemicals used as raw materials in the local industry. Comments may be submitted within 60 days of notification.
The law is due to enter into force on 1 March 2023 and the establishment of the associated Chemical Inventory Registry shall be completed by 1 September 2024.
Among others, the draft includes the following aspects:
- Establishing of a Chemical Inventory Registry
- Guidelines for performing risk assessments on selected chemicals
- Guidelines for conducting risk management by setting rules restricting the use of chemicals and/or exposure to them
- Definition of the responsibilities and obligations imposed on the registrar and the Chemical Evaluation Advisory Committee
Israel currently has an extensive regulation relating to the practices, import, production, use, maintenance, and transportation of chemical substances. However, the responsibilities under the existing regulation are decentralized and allocated among various government ministries and do not include a systematic assessment of chemicals and their effects on humans or of their environmental impact. The new draft law proposes a centralized mechanism to register industrial chemicals which shall be governed and regulated under one entity in the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Manufacturers and importers of significant quantities of industrial chemicals (over 10 tons per year of natural or artificial chemicals used as a raw material in the industry) will be required to report to the new online Chemicals Registry at the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Providing a full Safety Data Sheet (SDS) will be required. Submitted information will be made public, subject to the restrictions required to protect intellectual property and trade secrets.
Special attention will be given to reducing the bureaucratic burden and using relevant official databases. The obligations imposed on manufacturers and importers will apply to chemical substances found in a mixture intended for use as a raw material in the industry, but not to mixtures of chemicals found in the finished products.
According to the Draft Law’s Annex 2, an exemption from the registration obligation is possible in 4 scenarios:
- Part 1: The chemical is regulated by different legislation
- Part 2: A chemical substance with a known risk level
- Part 3: A chemical substance from a natural source
- Part 4: Polymers, except for free monomers in a weight concentration of 2 % or more
Please contact us if you would like to learn more about this topic or if you would like to receive further updates on the regulatory process!
