Competent authorities, NGOs and academics from 13 EU countries have come together to develop smartphone application for consumers to identify substances of very high concern (SVHCs) in articles.
The smartphone app will be developed in the frame of the project LIFE AskREACH and aims to increase consumers’ knowledge on the risks SVHCs pose to human health and the environment. SVHCs refer to e.g. carcinogenic substances, endocrine disruptors or substances deemed of special concern for the environment. Users of the app will be able to scan or manually input product barcode numbers and receive an answer if the product contains SVHCs. If the desired data won’t be available, the corresponding information request will be automatically sent to the article supplier. With the help of this application buyers will be educated and will make responsible purchasing decisions in future.
The project also plans to encourage the substitution of SVHCs in articles, by making producers, retailers and their supply chains, including article importers, aware of their legal obligations under the REACH regulation and improving supply chain communication.
IT system for the application will consist of database, where companies feed in information on SVHCs in articles, multi-language smartphone application for consumers, and a supply chain communication tool for companies, which aims to "increase their competencies and capacities to comply with REACH regulation".
Article 33 of the REACH regulation requires manufacturers to respond to a consumer’s request for the information about specific product’s content, and whether it contains any SVHCs above a concentration of 0.1%. They must provide the information free of charge within 45 days. It is important to obtain the information about the product’s composition right away, so that one can make responsible purchasing decision.
The project is funded by the EU LIFE programme (project number LIFE16 GIE/DE/000738).