From 5th January 2021, businesses that supply articles or complex objects (products) containing certain hazardous substances will have to submit information to a new database established by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The ECHA SCIP database was introduced with the need to track the usage and recycling of hazardous substances. According to a report by ECHA, the production of chemicals dangerous to health in the EU was 222.6 million tonnes in 2018. This number is expected to rise significantly with the rise in manufacturing.

In the same report, it was pointed out that the consumption of chemicals hazardous to health increased in the EU by 5 million tonnes in 2018.

Such staggering numbers pose imminent threats to human health and our natural ecosystem at the same time.

Thus, it becomes more and more essential to bring a level of transparency into the manufacturing and distribution of such chemicals. And the ECHA SCIP database was created to accomplish just that.

However, the SCIP database submission process is not a piece of cake for everyone. To make sure each and every manufacturer submits SVHC information on time, it is critical to make the process as less confusing as possible. But first, let us get a deep understanding as to why the submission process must be simplified for the manufacturers and suppliers.

The Need to Simplify ECHA SCIP Database Submissions

For many companies, it is a desirable option to rely on supply chain communication and make use of the SCIP notification. But impediments faced in the submission process demand the needs to simplify the ECHA SCIP database submission process. Few of the main reasons are listed below:

● Increased Costs: Larger the size of an organization, higher are the costs associated with documenting the intricate details of SVHC as well as the supply chain.

● Multiple Stakeholders:Having too many stakeholders to execute one process often creates chaos. Communication delays, inconsistent follow-ups and information lag can disrupt the activity and badly affect the expected outcomes.

● Reduced submissions:Smaller organizations with strained resources might not oblige to reporting SVHC due to the intense amount of work that needs to be done. This will overall results in reduced submissions and reduced data to be analyzed, which might end up getting companies in some serious trouble.

Tips to Simplify the Process

1. Reusing submitted data to ECHA:

At the time of the first submission, the SCIP database allocates a SCIP number to each supplier part. The SCIP number, for example, 1w221444-212a-2g67-8g44-3f4340aa51a8, is a random sequence of 36 hexadecimal characters,

Companies often face the hurdle of creating duplicate article submissions for supplier parts in their products that contain REACH Candidate List substances, including reporting. Here are the key pieces of information that should be recorded:

● Correct Article Category and the Material Category for each part

● Safe use information for each supplier part

This is because there exists no direct relationship between the SCIP number for one supplier part in comparison to another part being submitted by the same supplier.

APA Engineering, a pioneer in regulatory solutions, can provide you with the right tools required to capture the SCIP numbers for supplier parts and include them in companies’ submissions for their products. Reusing the SCIP numbers is especially beneficial for companies which usually don’t prefer to report information on behalf of their suppliers.

Understand the differences between SCIP database and REACH regulation to avoid any confusion in the submission process to make it more streamlined.

2. Cutting down costs:

The overall REACH ECHA compliance adherence is intricate and can put a dent on your resources (both time & money), if not well planned. By partnering with APA Engineering, you can bring down the costs significantly leveraging our customized solutions. This is how we APA Engineering can help:

● One-click supplier follow up & reporting to article manufactures

● Part level and BOM level REACH Reports

● IT tools to ensure timely & accurate submissions

● Automatic notifications of new SVHCs and restricted substance alerts

● Declarations uploaded directly through the Supplier Portal

The above mentioned are just a few prominent ways we could assist you. Based on your industry type, supplier sourcing, and organization hierarchy, there could be several other areas where you are displacing the resources to get work done.

3. Use parent company to submit on behalf of all companies in the group:

For companies within a corporate group, a parent company might wish to submit data on behalf of its daughter companies. This is an incredibly smart idea as it takes the onus of data collection, processing, and submission and puts it on the responsible parent company which is well suited to take such decisions as well as owns sufficient resources to execute it.

It is also the legal responsibility of the concerned parent company to submit data on behalf of another company, on a voluntary or contractual basis.

Key Takeaway

According to a global UN report dated in August 2018, covering all industries, one worker dies every 15 seconds because of exposure to hazardous substances. Hazardous substances lead to more deaths than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

This data clearly necessitates the need for transparent chemical reporting and stringent regulations like ECHA REACH, SCIP, PFOA etc.

Conclusion

With these many regulations and low availability time, it becomes a herculean task to keep up and comply with each of the regulations. You can save a lot of trouble just by outsourcing your regulatory requirements to a reputed agency. At APA Engineering, we have assisted a large number of companies in aligning with the ever-changing global regulatory needs. If your business requires help with any of the compliance needs, APA Engineering is just a click away!