The deadline for applying for product authorization issued by European Chemical agency (ECHA) has been set for 1 January 2019 (see details in table 1). Therefore, companies should submit the application dossier to ECHA before 1 January 2019. Otherwise, the company will have 180 days following the deadline within which it must ensure the product is no longer available on the market. The use of existing stocks of biocidal products may continue for up to 365 days after the set 1 January 2019 deadline.

Table 1 Deadlines for Union Authorisation Applications

As it is widely known, Italy is the Competent Authority responsible for the evaluation of active chlorine released from calcium hypochlorite that submitted the active substance approval decision to the EU BPC. Italy’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has stated many nominations have been received from companies interested in appointing Italy as their evaluating Competent Authority. However, as far as the authorization of calcium hypochlorite products is concerned, MOH indicated that so far they have only received two nominations regarding the Union Authorization prepared by REACH24H Consulting Group.

Netherlands is another relevant evaluating Competent Authority. The task of the Board for the Authorization of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb) in the Netherlands stated evaluating member states normally need time to organize the evaluation work when they receive nominations from companies. As the authorization deadline for calcium hypochlorite is approaching soon and an increasing workload is expected, Ctgb has explained that at present they are finding it difficult to accept nominations for this product. Therefore, Ctgb strongly advises companies with biocidal product authorization requests to send product authorization evaluating authority nominations 1.5 -2 years prior to the deadline and be ready to submit the product authorization as soon as possible to avoid missing the deadline.

In conclusion, the 1 January 2019 authorization deadline for Calcium Hypochlorite is approaching. Thus companies should make sure they are able to successfully prepare the authorization application on time.