Within the framework of the REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances), the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy has decided to submit a proposal for a Europe-wide restriction on the use of the chemical substance Bisphenol-A (BPA) (CAS n°80-05-7) in thermal paper (credit card slips, bank receipts, logistics labels, etc.).
As part of this proposal, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) must compile a restriction dossier, which will be examined by the committees of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and INERIS (the French national institute for the industrial environment and risks) is responsible for conducting a survey of economic operators in the thermal paper industry.
The aim of this survey is to identify the constraints and drivers of players on the thermal paper market, so that they can be taken into account by the public authorities in the preparation and implementation of their regulatory recommendations on risk management.
If you wish to take part, please click on the link below to access the questionnaire:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/8BCGGRW
Your answers will give us the clearest and most realistic idea possible of the market, the way it works and the particularly sensitive situations of some stakeholders with regard to the substitution of BPA in thermal paper.
Following the survey and analysis of its results, the dossier produced by ANSES will be open to public consultation on ECHA from the second quarter of 2014 (http://www.echa.europa.eu/web/guest/restrictions-under-consideration). You will then be able to comment upon it and contribute further to the analysis of the thermal paper market and the challenges it faces.