Summary of CLP scope

CLP covers some of the main physical, health and environmental hazards for ordinary chemicals, excluding specific products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, wastes etc.  Substances and mixtures are included in CLP, and also some articles where a substance or mixture is deliberately released.

There are a number of known hazards which are not currently included in CLP scope, particularly for physical hazards, including asphyxiant gases and dust explosion risks.  Many environmental hazards, such as de-oxygenation of water through forming a floating layer on the surface, or de-oxygenation through biodegradation are omitted.

Health hazards are better covered, but exclude unusual exposure routes, such as exposure via rectum or vagina (although these routes are used for delivering medicines).  CLP includes some extra health hazard routes omitted from GHS, e.g. toxic by eye contact, or corrosive to the respiratory tract.

Overall, CLP has a slightly wider scope than GHS, because extra exposure routes (usually from CHIP) have been included, but it should not be thought of as covering every single hazard possible from a hazardous substance.