How to prepare and submit information to poison centres : key information for companies submitting information on hazardous mixtures and for the Member State appointed bodies receiving the information.
Date: 2018-09-20
Institutions: European Chemicals Agency
Subjects: EU Member State, Internet site, administrative formalities, chemical industry, dangerous substance, dissemination of information

In brief

ECHA-18-B-08-EN

How to prepare and submit 
information to poison centres

Key information for companies submitting information on hazardous mixtures 
and for the Member State appointed bodies receiving the information.

The Poison Centres notification (PCN) portal is the online tool for industry to both prepare and submit 
information on hazardous mixtures that can be used by poison centres to help make an emergency health 
response. 

The information to be submitted through the PCN portal is based on the harmonised PCN format which 
defines the information requirements established in Annex VIII to the CLP Regulation. 

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WHY HARMONISE THE FORMAT? 

WHAT DOES THE PCN PORTAL DO?

Up until 1 January 2020, information submitted 
for the purposes of making an emergency health 
response may vary from Member State to Member 
State. The introduction of the new PCN format 
harmonises and reduces inconsistencies in the 
information made available to medical personnel in 
different Member States. 

The PCN format is also compatible with IUCLID 6 
which means that PCN data can take full advantage 
of the capabilities offered by the IUCLID platform 
(https://iuclid6.echa.europa.eu/). This includes full 
compatibility with the ECHA Cloud Services for data 
hosting, where industry can store their PCN data. 
More information on the PCN format and support 
material is available on ECHA’s website (https://
poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/). 

All information submitted by companies through 
the PCN portal will be securely forwarded to the 
corresponding appointed bodies identified in the 
notification. 

Companies will also receive a reference number from 
the portal so they have an audit trail allowing them 
to track their notifications and be informed when 
their notifications have been received. In addition, an 
embedded validation assistant will support companies 
to submit quality data during the preparation phase.

Multilingualism support will be gradually 
implemented and will be one of the portal’s key 
features. Ultimately, companies will be able to 
submit a single submission file in their preferred 
language to multiple appointed bodies in the required 
national languages, for example, through translatable 
selections made from structured dropdown lists. 

annankatu 18, p.o. box 400, fi-00121 helsinki, finland  |  echa.europa.euWHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT WAYS TO PREPARE 
AND SUBMIT PCN INFORMATION?

There are a number of options for a company to 
prepare and submit information depending on e.g. 
the company’s internal systems or the preferred 
submission route by Member States. 

service, companies will be able to directly prepare 
their PCN notifications in IUCLID format (.i6z) within 
their own systems and automatically transfer them 
to the PCN portal. The data will be validated when it 
is submitted and any inconsistencies in the dossier 
will be highlighted through the portal. 

Online through the portal:

The portal includes a dossier preparation tool which 
guides the user to prepare their PCN dossiers 
online with step-by-step instructions. The dossiers 
are submitted directly in the portal or downloaded 
and saved locally for later submission – either 
through the portal or through the local submission 
system of the Member States. The dossiers will be 
stored centrally in the portal and accessible by the 
submitting company. 

System-to-system integration:

For more advanced users, a system-to-system 
(S2S) integration service will be provided. With this 

Offline preparation:

As the PCN notification format is IUCLID 
compatible, notifications can also be prepared 
offline using IUCLID 6. A PCN user interface will be 
made available within the tool for those companies 
preferring to enter their data manually. The resulting 
IUCLID dossier can either be submitted through 
the PCN portal or through the Member States’ local 
system. IUCLID 6 also provides the possibility to 
validate the data before submitting. 

At any given time, companies will have access to the 
submitted information and their submission status 
through a submission report available in the PCN 
portal.

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deadline of January 2020 concerning mixtures for 
consumer use.

©iStock.com/HYWARDS

The use of the PCN portal by companies (or Member 
States) is not compulsory, as long as the harmonised 
format is used to prepare the information. However, it 
is up to each Member State to decide how companies 
will have to submit the information.

It may be decided by the Member State that companies 
can only submit through the PCN portal, or only 
through the national submission systems. Other 
Member States may give industry the choice between 
submitting through the PCN portal or national systems.

The use of the PCN portal is free of charge. Member 
States may decide to charge fees through their 
national legislation, as is currently the case in some 
countries. 

HOW SECURE IS THE SUBMITTED INFORMATION?

The PCN portal will maintain the same high level of 
security that is required for other industry IT systems 
in ECHA (e.g. REACH-IT) and access to PCN data 
will only be allowed to authenticated users. Once 
the information is forwarded to the Member State’s 
appointed body, the responsibility to ensure equivalent 
security measures is transferred accordingly.

WHEN WILL THE PCN PORTAL BE AVAILABLE? 

The first release of the PCN portal is set for early 
2019 to allow both industry and Member States 
time to get familiar with the new tool. There are 
also plans for a second release following further 
development with additional features, such as a 
searchable database, before the first applicable 

WHAT IS A SEARCHABLE DATABASE? 

A searchable database could enable the appointed 
bodies to access and search submitted notification 
data directly from the PCN portal. Having direct 
access, Member States can still choose to build or 
maintain their own national system and operate 
independently from the PCN portal. However, in 
the absence of direct access, Member States will 
have to build their own national systems to connect 
with the PCN portal to receive the dispatched 
notifications. 

Q&As and support:
https://poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/

List of nationally appointed bodies:
https://poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/
documents/22284544/22284829/contact_list_2018_
appointed_bodies_en.pdf/aeb033d1-def4-5f4e-58e2-
69fca529351e 

PCN format:
https://poisoncentres.echa.europa.eu/fi/poison-centres-
notification-format 

IUCLID website: 
https://iuclid6.echa.europa.eu/ 

Draft Guidance:
https://echa.europa.eu/support/guidance/consultation-
procedure/ongoing-clp

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