UK’s Cosmetics, personal care, and specialty chemical industry insiders tell us what they need
Great Britain recently released new harmonized mandatory hazard classifications that include classification and labeling requirements for substances on the UK market. For the bulletin, check out this link: HSE Classification Labelling and Packaging Bulletin. In the meantime, here are what cosmetics, personal care, and specialty chemicals industry insiders are saying about what they need to handle these changes. But first, what’s going on?
In October 2023 (98 substances) and March 2024 (25 substances), under Article 37 of the GB CLP Regulation, the harmonized classification of these 123 s ubstances were published on the HSE website. Like the ATP updates for the EU CLP, there’s a transitional period of eighteen months with deadlines for compliance for 20 April 2025 (October update) and 2 September 2025 (March update).
Among the substances affected are cosmetics and personal care formulation staples: limonene, potassium chlorate, sodium chlorate, cinnamaldehyde and allyl methacrylate.
Some of these mandatory classifications are different than the EU: More than 20 substances newly published for Great Britain are not the same as EU harmonized classifications.
Mandatory classification is a classification that has been made legally binding within Great Britain. It is equivalent to the 'harmonized classifications' under the EU CLP. The mandatory classifications and the accompanying hazard labelling (MCL) are listed in the UK’s mandatory classification and labelling list (MCL list). Any substance that has an MCL for some or all hazard classes, must be labelled accordingly. This mandatory classification and labelling system is hosted, managed and operated by the HSE (Great Britain’s CLP Agency)
Self-classification means a supplier gathers and evaluates all of the available information, then compares it to the classification criteria. It applies to all mixtures, and to substances which do not have a mandatory classification. Substances with a mandatory classification must be self-classified for any hazard class not covered within mandatory classifications. Use Trace One SDS to manage hazard classifications of both types.
You can keep up with new regulations by leveraging Trace One SDS timely cloud updates to run regulatory compliance checks. Labelling and safety data sheets can be managed, as well. Here are some common actions you can do with Trace One SDS:
Specialty chemicals and flavors & fragrances are among the raw materials used by the cosmetics and other industries. Other products which may have hazardous classifications are detergents, paints, adhesives, lubricants, and biocides. All of these must meet ever-changing local, regional, and global safety data sheet (SDS) and labeling compliance demands to align with Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)-based regulations. The ten capabilities above let you handle these other hazardous classifications with ease.
Trace One’s EHS compliance and SDS authoring solution accelerates hazard classification, SDS creation, and labeling in all major markets, providing a database of harmonized substance classifications and integrated regulatory content options. You can feel safe using this software because 20+ GHS jurisdictions are covered in Trace One, with global companies managing more than one million SDSs confidently and cost-efficiently.