CRAD DECEMBER 2014 NEWSLETTER

A LONG WAITED NEW TURKISH SDS REGULATION PUBLISHED.
Turkey has published legislation that aims to align the country’s application of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of classification and labelling of chemicals with the EU’s CLP Regulation in December 2013. Despite to the new regulation on Classification of chemical substances and mixtures the existing SDS regulation was referring to the former classification regulation which was identical with DSD/DPD and was creating an uncertainty about where and how to define the new GHS classification and labelling in the format of the SDS. Especially global chemical industries who were using IT systems for authoring SDS were challenging with the situation as there were no such format where you can identify the labelling in Section 2 and Section 15 at the same time.

The draft of the new Turkish SDS regulation was circulated to industry stakeholders in March 2014 for consultation. Everyone was expecting it to be published by mid 2014 so that the differences in the format of an SDS between EU and Turkey would be solved. And luckily it is published on 13 December 2014 on the official Gazette with No: 29204 and came in to force on the date of publication with transitional terms applied for hazardous substances and mixtures.

‘’Regulation on Safety Data Sheets regarding the Hazardous Substances and Mixtures’’ aligns the Turkish SDS format with EU 453/2010 with some small nuances due to the absence of REACH regulation. Also it will repeal the former SDS regulation 27092 totally as of 01.06.2016 which is as well the deadline for hazardous mixtures to comply with the new SDS regulation. The certification obligation for the personnel who is authoring the SDS still remains the same. The ones holding a past certificate will be able to author SDS in accordance with the old regulation till they get their certificate renewed by the examination based on the new regulation. But this seems to be quiet challenging as we only have less than 6 months to comply with the new SDS regulation for hazardous substances. The very few certification bodies are not yet ready for the new training and examination scheme with the CLP criteria and no one can fore see how the industry will overcome the compliance issue with in such a short term.

Critical dates:
* The regulation came into force on the date of publication. It will become obligatory for hazardous substances as of 1.6.2015 and for hazardous mixtures as of 1.6.2016. Despite to the delay in official publication the Competent Authority preferred to keep the deadlines as they are in the draft text.

* The new Turkish SDS format includes 16 sections and 48 subsections.

* It is an obligation to identify the contact information of the certified SDS expert as well as the certification number on section 16 of the SDS.

* For sure there is no need to say that the SDS should be in Turkish to comply with the 29204.

* A soft copy of the SDS needs to be submitted by the manufacturer or importer to the EIS of the MoEU.

The deadline for mixtures is 1 year after the deadline for substances. Also as it is identified in the transitional terms the substance manufacturers are not obliged to give dual classification on the SDS till the deadline for mixtures. We expect this to be a typo and will expect a clarification form the competent authority if they plan an amendment or they will leave the mixture formulators who are still using the old SAE classification to their destiny in forming their SDS with no DSD classification communicated by their substance suppliers.

Industry is quite concerned about the first half of 2015 as they need to cope with C&L notifications and CLP labelling under the scope of 28848 Turkish SEA Regulation as well as compliance to the new SDS regulation 29204 for hazardous substances. Will for sure be a challenging 5 months for every stake holders.

Unfortunately an English translation of the legal text is not yet available. For the Turkish legal text of the ‘’Regulation on Safety Data Sheets regarding the Hazardous Substances and Mixtures’’ 29204 please follow the link.