Poison Centre Notifications: Beyond the Transition Period
Poison Centre Notifications: Beyond the Transition Period
On the 13th of May 2025, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) held a free webinar on the relevant changes to poison centre notifications (PCNs) following updates to the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation and the passing of the recent transition period. The webinar focused on the process of submitting PCNs as well as the adoption of new Guidance and submission tools. It also looked at common PCN issues ECHA come across and practical advice on how to combat them.
First, Heidi Rasikari , Regulatory Officer in ECHA, detailed current topics for poison centre notifiers. She discussed the new CLP revisions which include:
- an amendment to Article 1 relating to Annex VIII which entered into force on the 10th of December 2024,
- a new paragraph added to Article 4 which is not explicit to PCNs but is still relevant,
- the addition of the new Article 45 1.c to cover potential information gaps and
- updates to Annex VIII in relation to standard formulas and new reasons for updating notifications.
These revisions and amendments can be found in full in Regulation (EU) 2024/2865 amending Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 .
Heidi also mentioned that ECHA’s CLP-related Guidance would be updated as well as the Annex VIII Guidance. She then discussed the importance of the proper use and management of Unique Formula Identifier (UFI) codes. After submission of a PCN, any quality rules related to UFI codes should be double checked to ensure that they don’t relate to improper use of the UFI, particularly in cases where it is being used by multiple entities in the supply chain.
Next, Hugo Vara, Product Manager in ECHA, talked through the latest IT developments. He mentioned that there will be a new IUCLID format available at the end of May 2025, as well as a new PCN format (version 7). The new PCN format contains updates such as combined PBT/vPvB and PMT/vPvM classes and the addition of new notification update reasons. Hugo later discussed some technicalities related to IUCLID and System-to-system (S2S) submissions, as well as the fact that Belgian VAT numbers starting with 1 are now supported by the UFI generator since the 31st of January 2025. Finally, Adam Elwan, Communications in ECHA, closed out the webinar with some overall conclusions.
Please note that Inspectors from ECHA’s Enforcement Forum are carrying out checks at a national level to ensure submission of PCNs. They will also verify labels and where needed, safety data sheets.
If you need support in the preparation and submission of Poison Centre Notifications for Ireland or the rest of the EU, please do not hesitate to contact the regulatory team at info@kerona.ie