The manufacturers of Melamine have joined efforts for their REACH compliance activities and have launched the Melamine REACH consortium in May 2009.

Consortium activities
The consortium members agreed to cooperate in the preparation of a REACH Registration dossier for Melamine with the aim to cover major uses of the substance. The dossier will include information for harmonised classification and labelling. The consortium will be managed by ReachCentrum.

Substance covered
The following substance has to be registered under the REACH legislation by December 2010:

Use Descriptor for Melamine
One of the obligations under REACH is to perform a Chemical Safety Assesment (CSA), demonstrating the safe use of a substance through its lifecycle. The hazard assessment requires the collection and evaluation of all available and relevant information on the substance. This includes information on the intrinsic properties of the substance, on the manufacturing and uses, and on the related emissions and exposures. Where existing information is insufficient to satisfy the REACH requirements, additional information has to be generated.

The objective of the hazard assessment is to identify the hazards of the substance, assess their potential effects on human health and the environment, and determine, where possible, the threshold levels for exposure considered as safe (the so called no-effect levels). If as a result of the hazard assessment it can be concluded that the substance does not meet the criteria for classification as dangerous or to be considered a PBT/vPvB4, the CSA ends here.

To streamline the communication of within the value chain, the consortium for the registration of melamine has created a first draft of the uses using the ECHA's "Use Discriptor System". This draft is open response up untill the time of registration, unless the fact that ECHA has put a deadline at December 1st, 2009. In case you have uses to be added to the draft document you can make this known to the following contact, so these uses can be evaluated. 

ECHA’s 'Use Descriptor System' filled in for melamine can be downloaded here (draft November 11, 2009).

Membership
The Melamine REACH consortium structure includes a Steering Committee and a Technical Committee. The consortium is open to manufacturers, importers and only representatives as defined in the REACH regulation and includes their Affiliates.

Current members of the Melamine consortium
BASF SE
Borealis Agrolinz Melamine GmbH
Cytec Surface Specialties SA
DSM Melamine B.V.  - Lead Company
Helm AG
Zaklady Azotowe “Pulawy”