Sustainability Language

Water, Waste & Pollution

Chemical of Concern

An umbrella label for chemicals targeted for restriction or substitution because of serious, often irreversible effects on health or the environment.

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Definition

A chemical identified as warranting priority attention — restriction, substitution or phase-out — because of hazardous properties such as carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, reproductive toxicity (CMR), persistence and bioaccumulation (PBT/vPvB) or equivalent concern such as endocrine disruption. The EU REACH Regulation's Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs, Article 57) are the regulatory archetype; industry usage (CoC/CoHC) extends to substances on customer, NGO or sector lists beyond law.

References

Assent

REACH Art. 57 criteria (CMR, PBT, vPvB, equivalent concern); 0.1% threshold; Candidate List process.

ECHA

Official Candidate List; definition anchored in "serious and often irreversible effects".

Overview

What it means

"Chemical of concern" is the working category between regulatory bans and free use — substances flagged by hazard science ahead of, or beyond, legal restriction. REACH operationalises the concept: SVHC identification leads to the Candidate List (over 240 substances, updated roughly twice yearly), then potentially to the Authorisation List with sunset dates after which use requires permission.

Companies screen portfolios against multiple concern lists (Candidate List, SIN List, GreenScreen Benchmark-1, customer RSLs) because being caught with a soon-to-be-restricted substance is a financial risk; the category thus functions as an early-warning system driving safer-by-design substitution.

How it is used

Procurement and R&D teams run list-based screening of formulations; disclosure duties attach (REACH's 0. 1% w/w communication threshold, SCIP database); investors use CoC exposure as a regulatory-risk proxy; substitution programmes target CoCs first.

Why it matters

The CoC category converts hazard science into commercial signal — the mechanism by which markets anticipate regulation and pull safer chemistry forward.

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