The Europen Diisocyanate and Polyol Producers Association (ISOPA) and ALIPA take note of the scientific report published by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for the evaluation of limit values (OEL) for diisocyanates at the workplace. As manufactureres of diisocyanates, we stand ready to engage with ECHA, the European Commission, EU member states and other stakeholders to ensure safe use of diisocyanates in Europe.

Since 2015, we have been working with EU authorities to suport the development of a REACH restriction on diisocyanates, which would in our view complement EU worker safety legislation, incuding the ongoing OEL process, to ensure that risks on the workplace are controlled through mandatory training. ECHA’s Risk Assessment Committee concluded in 2017 that  “[…] the suggested restriction is the most apropriate EU wide measure to prevent new cases of respiratory sensitisation from exposure to diisocyanates by implementing harmonised training for the workforce”. We trust that EU and member state authorities will take this in to account in upcoming discussions on the Commission’s restriction proposal and on ECHA’s OEL scientific report.