According to an article in the Financial Times (Balch, November 10, 2022) there are currently proposed changes for registering chemicals in the EU for the system known as Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The proposed changes to REACH would oblige manufacturers to no longer sell up to 12,000 compounds which have the potential to cause a variety of serious health problems. Additionally, grouping chemicals into separate risk and use categories, and ending the use of substances of “very high concern” in certain consumer products.

For companies this challenge is mountainous, the unknown (timelines for changes or funding, for example) as well as massive future changes doesn’t help with long-term planning or business forecasting. There is the issue of what happens when certain compounds are forbidden, and all processes and products containing those compounds must be reworked or no longer used or sold. For manufacturers, how will they know which compounds are allowed for transport, for use in production or are able to sell in certain countries or regions.

This is where SAP S/4HANA for product compliance assists and is a reliable partner for companies, to help navigate such challenges. For product marketability, dangerous goods handling and transport along with safety data sheet creation and delivery, we have up-to-date content through our regulatory content service. Our embedded regulatory content includes listed substances, graphics, and phrases with translations to support the regulatory and compliance requirements for countries and regions worldwide. All this is used by the product compliance system to ensure compliance and make the challenges easier to deal with for company employees.

This past year our product compliance team has expanded the system for using safety measures like Poison Centre Notifications (and unique formula identifiers) for Europe and National Fire Protection Association ratings for the USA, among a host of other improvements. For more than 20 years, product compliance and environment, health and safety have been sharing chemical data. This data can be used to promote better warehousing conditions, improve worker safety, and protect the environment. While the past couple years have been full of macro-economic issues with COVID, war, and recession; sustainability has come to the forefront for investors and, correspondingly, companies. If you are interested in how product compliance fits with sustainability, you can check out this blog post.

While changes in national and regional regulations are inevitable, we all should welcome changes for the betterment, safety and well-being of people and the environment. Our aim is, using embedded content, to keep our customers and partners solutions up to date, ensure accurate product declarations along with permissible and safe transport, warehousing, and production.