Today ECHA, the European Chemicals Agency, has added 14 new chemical substances to the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) for Authorisation.

In December 2009, the ECHA Member State Committee decided that all 15 SVHCs nominated should be included on the Candidate List.

Today ECHA has announced that all of these substances, exept Acrylamide, are included on the Candidate List. 

Two chemical companies, Polyelectrolyte Producers Group and SNF Group, have launched a legal challenge against a proposal to include acrylamide on the Candidate List. The companies argue the chemical can not be included on the list because all of acrylamide's uses are as an intermediate, and such uses are formally excluded from Authorisation under REACH. It will now be up to the European Court of Justice to decide whether to include acrylamide on the Candidate List.

The Consumer Right to Know principle now also includes the 14 new substances on the Candidate List. The Consumer Right to Know principle requires suppliers of articles which contain Candidate List substances in a concentration above 0.1% to, upon request from a consumer, within 45 days provide sufficient information whether the article includes any Candidate List substances.