CHIP is short for:
The text of these Regulations can be viewed online, printed copies of the official documents can be purchased from The Stationery Office.
CHIP has to be amended from time to time to take account of changes to the EU Directives on which it is based.
CHIP implements three European Community (EC) Directives:
The purpose of these is to provide an EU-wide system to make sure that people are properly informed about the danger of chemicals both at work and in the home. They also improve the Single Market by requiring all suppliers of dangerous chemicals to provide the same standard of information to their customers.
Copies of the EC Directives can be obtained from the Stationery Office.
The technical content of the DSD is contained in a number of Annexes, for example:
In order to reflect technical and scientific developments, these Annexes are changed from time to time. They are altered following a vote on a proposal in a special committee of Member States Experts known as a 'Technical Progress Committee' (TPC). The TPC meetings are preceeded by scientific discussions held at the European Chemicals Bureau (ECB) to which stakeholders (including representatives of business and unions) are invited. Details of the meetings are avaliable on the ECB web site.The resulting measure (known as an Adaptation to Technical Progress (ATP)) is formally adopted as a Commission Directive and published in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
CHIP is enforced by HSE inspectors, except in retail premises where Local Authority Trading Standards Officers have enforcement responsibility.
Under CHIP3 there is an obligation to disclose the chemical identities of hazardous chemicals on packaging labels and in safety data sheets. This is to convey important information on the ingredients that contribute to the hazard(s) of the substance or preparation. However, it has been acknowledged by the EC that such disclosure of constituents of preparations may put at risk the confidential nature of a manufacturer's intellectual property.
To address this, the DPD allows for confidentiality of some chemical names, ie an alternative name may be used instead of the chemical name to preserve intellectual property. CHIP3 implements this provision in Great Britain.
HSE is the authority with responsibility for administering the applications for confidentiality in Great Britain. HSE will also deal with applications from Northern Ireland.