. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/EU/73 
31 October 2012  
 (12-5954) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Articles that can be used 
by consumers and that c ontain the following PAHs: 
- Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) (CAS No 50-32-8); 
- Benzo[e]pyrene (BeP) (CAS No 192-97-2); - Benzo[a]anthracene (BaA) (CAS No 56-55-3); - Chrysene (CHR) (CAS No 218-01-9); - Benzo[b]fluoranthene (B bFA) (CAS No 205-99-2); 
- Benzo[j]fluoranthene (BjFA) (CAS No 205-82-3); 
- Benzo[k]fluoranthene (BkFA) (CAS No 207-08-9) and; - Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DBAhA) (CAS No 53-70-3). 
Such articles include: 
- toys including activity toys such as swings and childcare articles; 
- sport equipment such as bicycles, golf clubs, racquets; 
- house-hold utensils, trol leys, walking frames; 
- tools for domestic use; - clothing, footwear, gl oves and sportswear; 
- watch-straps, wrist-band s, masks, head-bands. G/TBT/N/EU/73 
Page 2  
 
  5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Annex XVII to Regulat ion (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the Registrati on, Evaluation, Authoris ation and Restriction 
of Chemicals (REACH) as regards Polycyclic aromat ic hydrocarbons (5 pages, in English).     
6. Description of content:  The draft Regulation proposes to pr ohibit the supply to the general 
public of articles, if any of their rubber or pl astic components that come into direct and 
prolonged contact with the human skin or the oral cavity, under nor mal or reasonably 
foreseeable conditions of use, contain more than 1 mg/kg of any of the PAHs (mentioned 
under point 4).  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
The objective is to protect the health of consumers from the risk arising from carcinogenic 
PAHs in articles by setting limits on the PAH c ontent in the accessible plastic or rubber parts 
of articles and by prohibiting the placing on the market of articles containing any of the PAHs in concentrations greater th an 1 mg/kg in those parts.  
8. Relevant documents:   Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of th e European Parliament and of the 
Council on the  Registration, Evaluation, Au thorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 
(REACH) (OJ L 396, 30.12.2006, p.1) 
"http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ /LexUriServ.do?uri=CON SLEG:2006R1907:20120605:EN:PDF " 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    2nd half of 2013 
20 days from publication in the Official Journal of the EU (about a month after adoption approx.)  The provisions shall apply 2 years after entry into force. 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/EEC/12_4272_00_e.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/EEC/12_4272_01_e.pdf