ChemXchange

ChemXchange is a European project tasked with producing a simple and easy to use database of chemicals and compounds used by the painting industry. It will fulfil the mandatory requirements of the REACH legislation.

When completed, painting contractors will be able to refer to the database when they are tendering for contracts and prior to starting work to ensure that they have fully assessed the risks and issues to using products in the working environment. This will help cut costs and red tape coming from compliance verification.

UNIEP is one of the project partners representing painting contractors across Europe. We will be instrumental in the final phase of the project on testing, piloting and implementing the database.

The project is managed by an Executive and Management Board who use IT contractors to build the database funded by the European Commission. UNIEP has a seat on the Management Board.

A first ChemXchange prototype will be avalaible for dissemination on February 2012. Once the design is finished, UNIEP will work with other partners to begin to test the system and feedback results and comments. We will robustly represent painting contractors' views and do everything we can to end up with a practical, user friendly system which is available in all major European languages.

The project should be completed by the end of 2012. UNIEP will keep its members updated of progress over the next few months.

For more information on ChemXchange visit

http://www.chemxchange.com