Ten major global chemical sector companies have agreed with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish what they called “a breakthrough, pre-competitive development platform to accelerate net-zero climate technologies”. They are BASF, Dow, DSM, Solvay, Clariant, Covestro, Mitsubishi Chemical, Air Liquide, Sabic and Sibur.

ECHA has published advice on how to use the OECD guideline to REACH registrants on how to reliably combine different sources of non-animal data on skin sensitisation properties of their substances. This is the first guideline outlining how to use in silico tools like the QSAR Toolbox for this purpose. Mike Rasenberg, ECHA’s director for hazard assessment, described it as “an important milestone for advancing the use of alternative methods to assess chemical hazards”.

Silicon materials player Elkem has announced a new climate roadmap, detailing how it plans to develop its business in line with the aim of the Paris agreement of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, while also achieving revenue growth of 5-10%/year.

A key deadline for UK REACH is coming this month. Andrew Warmington reports from ChemUK 2021

Not surprisingly, UK REACH was one of the big topics at the panel discussions and individual presentations given at the ChemUK show, which took place at the NEC near Birmingham on 15-16 September. UK REACH came into force on 1 January, the day after the UK left the EU.

Swedish-based NGO ChemSec has revealed that over 50 companies have joined the corporate PFAS Movement that it launched a little over a year ago. Three US companies, Naturepedic, Seventh Generation and Beautycounter, are among those who are now part of it, alongside the mainly European membership.

ECHA has published the first database of substances of very high concern in products (SCIP) in the EU. This aims to enable consumers “to make more informed purchasing choices and help waste operators to further develop the re-use of articles and the recycling of materials,” the agency said.

Bachem, the world’s largest peptides manufacturer, has announced some results of two studies it carried out with Novo Nordisk, seeking to make solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) greener.

SPPS requires large volumes of solvents and the current gold standards, because of their excellent solubilisation and stability properties for reagents and resin swelling capabilities, are N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dichloromethane and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. All now face restrictions under REACH because of their hazardous nature.