Summary of Poison Centre Notification

Poison Centre Notification has been around since 1999 under the Dangerous Preparations Directive, when notification of hazardous mixtures to Poison Centres in individual countries of the EU was first brought in.

The system enables users of hazardous mixtures to contact the Poison Centre in an emergency, and receive appropriate advice, particularly for medical treatment.

This continues under CLP Article 45, and the system has been updated in 2017 with a requirement that the information to be notified to Poison Centres is to be harmonised, and a Unique Formulation Identifier should be used, regardless of where the mixture is notified in the EU.

Hazardous mixtures are required to be notified either by the formulator (if made in the EU), or the importer; and may also require notification by re-sellers if they are sold on into other EU countries.

There is a phase in period as follows:

• consumer use, 2020
• professional use, 2021
• industrial use, 2024

Individual Poison Centres may require extra information above the harmonised requirements, and may also charge (and charges may vary).  They also use different software notification systems, and may require the notification information in their own official language(s).

At the time of writing, July 2017, individual Poison Centres will need to be notified by companies selling into the EU, although ECHA is reviewing whether a single submission point could be set up online, which would save both the countries and notifying companies a great deal of time and effort.