Commission communication pursuant to Article 2 of Commission Decision 85/71/EEC of 21 December 1984 concerning the list of chemical substances notified pursuant to Council Directive 67/548/EEC on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances

(2000/C 72/02)

ELINCS

(European list of notified chemical substances)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The European list of notified chemical substances (Elincs) is published pursuant to Commission Decision 85/71/EEC(1). It consists of all chemical substances notified within the European Community up to 30 June 1995, pursuant to Article 7 of Council Directive 67/548/EEC(2) (hereinafter "the Directive"). It is planned to update the list annually.

Each entry in the list corresponds to one chemical substance. However, many dossiers have been submitted by one or more importers and/or manufacturers.

For each substance, the following information is provided, if relevant and if not confidential:

(a) Numbers

EC number: number allocated by the Commission of the European Communities.

Dossier numbers: file leader dossier number first (number of first dossier received for the substance, in application of Article 7 of the Directive, by any Member State), followed by all other dossier numbers.

The dossier number has the following standard structure: xx - xx - xxxx. The two first digits represent the year of notification, the next two indicate the Member State where the substance has been notified and the last four digits represent the number of the dossier in the chronological order in which it was received within the country concerned. Codes of the different Member States are as follows: 01: France; 02: Belgium; 03: The Netherlands; 04: Germany; 05: Italy; 06: United Kingdom; 07: Ireland; 08: Denmark; 09: Luxembourg; 10: Greece; 11: Spain; 12: Portugal; 13: Finland; 14: Austria; 15: Sweden.

(b) Identification of the substance

According to the Annex to Decision 85/71/EEC, each substance is identified by its trade name(s) and its chemical name or by its trade name(s) only if confidentiality has been granted to the latter by one competent authority, upon request of one notifier, for reasons of commercial secrecy.

Taking into account the above paragraph, the following identification sections are given in the list, for each substance:

Trade name(s): all trade names under which the substance is marketed within the Community market.

Chemical name: generally this is the name of the substance according to the rules of the International Union of pure and applied chemistry (IUPAC). If it is not possible to allocate a precise chemical name (e.g. if the substance is not completely defined), a name has been allocated according to the rules defined for the identification of such substances in the European inventory of existing commercial chemical substances (Einecs)(3). Some chemical names listed in the fourth publication of Elincs(4) were amended according to the notification and the IUPAC nomenclature rules.

Since the fourth publication of Elincs the competent authorities for the notification of new chemical substances have agreed to change the rules relating to the identification of mixtures. The aim of the change is to avoid inconsistencies with the Einecs rules and to simplify matters for notifiers. This change will not affect any notification requirements.

According to the new rules:

- an Elincs entry will be regarded as a (mono-)substance, when the main component is present at a level of 80 % or more (SNIF(5), Section 1.1.00: mixture "no"). The substance will be listed in Elincs with the name of the (mono-)substance, only.

- an Elincs entry will be regarded as a mixture, when the main component is present at a level of less than 80 % (SNIF, Section 1.1.00: mixture "yes"). All components present at levels of at least 10 % will be listed in Elincs).

If there is no indication to the contrary, minor components and impurities are not mentioned in Elincs. In any case they will also appear in the identification section, if they contribute significantly to the classification of the substance.

The new rules have been applied to all notifications and notifications updates since the fourth publication of Elincs. The systematic examination of all Elincs entries is under way.

(c) Classification

Classification as published in Annex I to the Directive for the substance in question.

This section is only filled in if the substance has obtained a harmonised classification at Community level according to Article 4 of the Directive and its classification has been published in Annex I to this Directive.

Where the substance is classified as dangerous, but has not yet been entered in Annex I, an asterisk is placed in this section.

Note:

For labelling of the substance, refer to the rules laid down in the Directive, in particular Articles 4 and 23 and Annex VI (General classification and labelling requirements for dangerous substances and preparations).

(1) OJ L 30, 2.2.1985, p. 33.

(2) OJ 196, 16.8.1967, p. 1. Directive last amended by Directive 1999/33/EC (OJ L 199, 30.7.1999, p. 57).

(3) OJ C 146 A, 15.6.1990, p. 1.

(4) OJ C 361, 17.12.1994, p. 1.

(5) Summary notification interchange format.

>TABLE>