Commercial Information Circulars

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e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/2/11

15 July 2009

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 363/2009

European Union (EU)* : Regulation on Detergents

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 126/2004 of 15 May 2004, the European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Regulation to amend the list of surfactants that have obtained a derogation from Regulation (EC) No. 648/2004 regarding the rules on detergent. Details are set out in the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 551/2009 (the Regulation). The Regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:164:0003:0006:EN:PDF

DETAILS

1.  
2. In response to a request for a derogation, the EU authority has evaluated the surfactant "Dehypon G 2084" (IUPAC name "alcohols, Guerbet, C16-20, ethoxylated, n-butyl ether (7-8EO)" and CAS number 147993-59-7) and concluded that its risk to the environment was low. In this regard, derogation is granted for the use of this surfactant in three industrial applications: bottle washing, cleaning-in-place and metal cleaning, for a period of 10 years. Details are set out in Annex I of the Regulation.

ENQUIRIES

3. For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Peggy LEUNG)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.