In recent years, as both regulatory requirements and information technology (IT) security enhancements have increased, the online accounts you need to comply with REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) have also increased. Instead of just needing to have familiarity with the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) REACH-IT system and/or IUCLID database, you now need multiple accounts across multiple platforms to maintain REACH compliance.
While we will cover the basic accounts you need for REACH compliance here, it should be noted that within the European Union (EU) there are numerous other regulations that are administered and enforced via ECHA Accounts. If you do business anywhere within the EU, you will need to either know how to manage all of these accounts yourself or hire someone who can manage them for you.
We are also limiting the discussion of ECHA IT accounts here to include only the accounts needed to meet requirements in relation to EU REACH. Note that these accounts are also used for other regulations such as EU CLP (Classification, Labeling and Packaging Regulation), EU PCN (Point Center Notification), and EU SCIP (Substances of Concern in Products).
However, if you are importing into the United Kingdom (UK), this entire set of requirements will have to be duplicated in additional accounts, as the UK has its own IT system.
IT Accounts Needed for REACH Compliance
To document and manage your compliance for the EU market, you will need to understand the following systems and set up user accounts in each of them in order to report the status of your products placed on the EU market:
- ECHA Accounts
- EU Login
- ECHA Cloud Services
- REACH-IT
- IUCLID
While we will explain the basics here, for comprehensive information, please refer to the cited guidance documents linked in the descriptions below.
ECHA Accounts
ECHA Accounts is the central location where registered company account managers can administer the contact details and the accounts of their users for a wide variety of platforms including EU Login, ECHA Cloud Services, REACH-IT and IUCLID. ECHA Accounts also allows a user to log into an ECHA application and manage the organization’s user accounts for all employees.
There are two ways to access ECHA applications:
- Log in through ECHA Accounts first, the select the appropriate ECHA application (for example, REACH-IT).
- Log in directly to the ECHA application using the appropriate link.
EU Login
EU Login is the entry gate to sign into different European Commission services and/or other systems. EU Login verifies your identity and allows you to recover personal settings, history, and access rights in a secure way.
ECHA Cloud Services
ECHA Cloud Services is a secure online platform where you can easily access ECHA IT applications anytime, anywhere. The current services available include IUCLID Cloud Trial, which is aimed at testing the service. IUCLID Cloud Services has additional security related features, backup settings, and a higher volume of storage than the version of IUCLID you load onto your desktop to run.
REACH-IT
REACH-IT is the central IT system that supports industry, member state authorities, and ECHA to securely submit, process, and manage data and dossiers for REACH.
REACH-IT is an application that can be used to submit data to ECHA and document its compliance. Your company will have its own user accounts in REACH-IT. Each employee will have differing roles in their account depending on the level of responsibility they have. For example, a user who will not be editing any data may have “read-only access.”
IUCLID
IUCLID is a software used to record, store, maintain, and exchange data on the intrinsic and hazardous properties of chemical substances. ECHA co-develops this software with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Under REACH, information submitted to ECHA has to be in IUCLID format. ECHA provides the software for free on the IUCLID 6 website.
Get Help Managing Your ECHA IT Accounts
The five accounts mentioned above are not an exhaustive list of all the ECHA IT accounts you may need in order to maintain and document your EU chemicals compliance. In addition to REACH compliance, using the SCIP (Substances of Concern in Products) database has also become mandatory. Depending on the types of products you manufacture and import, you may have additional compliance obligations as well.
Tetra Tech has experience providing support to IT systems in a variety of applications, including the ECHA IT accounts you need for REACH compliance. We can manage your data or serve as account administrator supporting your ECHA IT accounts.
If you are just getting started, Tetra Tech can help by walking you through this process and setting up an ECHA IT account action plan. This will keep you compliant while efficiently managing your user community’s roles and responsibilities.
Some ECHA IT tasks we can help you with:
- Determining the optimal set up of user roles and responsibilities for your organization
- Manually submitting data and reports to ECHA using your ECHA IT accounts
- Setting up reporting automation using electronic upload-download of files, for example to and from the SCIP database
- Serving as the role of “foreign user” within your account structure
- Monitoring ongoing reporting requirements
If you need help with any one of these tasks, contact Tetra Tech’s product compliance experts today at [email protected]. We can help you understand changes in scope that will affect you and can support you with any ECHA IT needs.
