European Chemicals Agency Launches New Chemicals Database

A new chemicals database launched recently by the European Chemicals Agency houses information from all registrations submitted to ECHA under REACH, the EU’s regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals. The database, called ECHA CHEM, is intended to help the agency improve its handling of data and take advantage of technological advancements. The first version of ECHA CHEM includes information from more than 100,000 REACH registrations. Database users can search for registered substances using any chemical identifier, including European Community (EC) number, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry number, and chemical name. Another feature of the database is the option to export substance search results as well as dossiers for each substance. According to ECHA, the agency is aware of a couple of known issues related to this release. For example, ECHA is working to optimize the order of search results and to publish about 500 additional registration dossiers that are not yet available in the database due to technical problems.

In the third quarter of 2024, ECHA intends to expand the database to include information related to substance classification and labeling, such as summaries of hazards that have been identified for substances and the sources of classification data. Later in the year, the agency plans to add new datasets to ECHA CHEM, including datasets related to the identification of substances of very high concern and the harmonized classification and labeling process.

ECHA CHEM is available via ECHA’s website. Further information can be found in the agency’s news release and on its webpage on the transition to ECHA CHEM.