78% of inspected products sold online breach EU chemicals laws: ECHA

The inspections, which covered Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) and the Biocidal Products (BPR) regulations, resulted in more than 5,000 enforcement actions.

Around 2 600 products were checked against requirements for restricted substances. More than 1 800 were carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic substances (CMRs), such as lead in solders for welding needs and boric acid, ECHa said in a press release.

Products containing restricted CMRs should only be available for professional users. However, 99 per cent of the inspected products that contained CMRs were available for consumers to buy online. Other non-compliances were found for phthalates in toys and cadmium in jewellery.

Under CLP, non-compliances were related to a lack of information on the hazards of the chemical product in the online advertisement. In 75 per cent of inspections, the information was missing and for those where it was available, it was often not clearly visible.

In relation to biocides, 77 per cent of inspected biocidal products were found to be non-compliant with at least one requirement under the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR). The highest rate of non-compliance was for repellents and attractants (79 per cent). Most identified non-compliances were for products sold to the public.

Seventeen per cent of inspected products breached the BPR because they had misleading statements in the advertisements such as ‘low-risk biocidal product’, ‘non-toxic’, ‘harmless’, ‘natural’, ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘animal friendly’.

The rate of non-compliance was higher for marketplaces than for web shops.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)