At midnight on 31 December 2020, the UK withdrawal from the EU will be final. For EU downstream users of chemicals this may have serious implications.

The preservative butylparaben has been identified as an endocrine disrupting chemical and has been included on the EU REACH Candidate List of substances of very high concern (SVHCs).

The use of diisocyanates and mixtures containing diisocyanates is to be restricted for industrial and professional uses. This is expected to reduce the number of work-induced asthma in the EU.

From January 2021 new information requirements for ECHA’s SCIP database apply to articles containing substances from the Candidate List above 0.1% w/w.

Mixtures classified for health and physical hazards must be notified to the national EU Poison Centres by 1 January 2021 in all countries where the mixtures are sold.

A new corrected version of OECD Test Guideline 442C allows for testing for skin allergy without the use of test animals.