Council Directive on dangerous substances including carcinogens
Council Directive 67/548/EEC, most recently amended by Directive 92/32/EEC, contains in an Annex a list of dangerous substances for which uniform classification and labelling has been decided at Community levels. A further proposed Directive now aims, in the light of recent technical progress, to modify the above Annex, adding a further 70 substances to those listed. In addition, the classification and labelling requirements of a number of substances or groups of substances have been revised and brought up to date on the basis of new scientific information. In particular, the Commission has given a high priority to carcinogens. This priority, which has been established in the context of the Community Action programme "Europe against Cancer", has resulted in the addition to the Annex of 19 substances or groups of substances newly classed as carcinogens. The Directive is one of the main Community measures in the area of chemicals control and is of considerable importance to the chemical industry in particular. As a large number of changes and amendments to the Directive have been made over a period of time, and issued as separate texts, it is considered that it may be difficult to ensure a comprehensive understanding of all its current provisions. For this reason the Commission intends to propose a consolidated version of the Directive, so that the whole text will be available in a single coherent document.