Home Care Topics

The Home Care department within IKW provides competent answers to questions concerning hygiene, washing and cleaning.

Legal affairs

Globally Harmonised System (GHS)

The ad-hoc Working Group “GHS” of IKW has published an article in the SÖFW Journal 10 2007 on the question “What will change for cleaning products as a result of the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for classification and labelling” which you can download as a PDF file.

Based on five simple or simplified formulation examples for cleaning products
-        acid bathroom cleaner,
-        all purpose cleaner,
-        hand dishwashing detergent,
-        hand dishwashing concentrate,
-        drain cleaner

the classification and labelling provisions of the GHS concerning a corrosive or irritating effect on skin and eyes were applied.

For four of the five cleaning products considered, tighter labelling provisions are to be expected in future under the GHS system although their formulations and the hazard potential have not changed. For consumers all products to be labelled as corrosive will appear to be equally hazardous, i. e. the mild hand dishwashing detergent will, for instance, be considered just as dangerous as the highly alkaline drain cleaner. This will mean that the degree of care exercised when using the drain cleaner will be reduced if the labelling suggests that it is to be used with the same degree of care as a hand dishwashing detergent. The classification and labelling are levelled. This renders proper information of the consumer more difficult if the admissible formal approach is used.

Differentiated consumer information will become more difficult with the GHS because many mixtures will be labelled in some way as hazardous which does not correspond to the hazard they actually entail that is known to the consumers. It is, therefore, indispensable to use the other options of the GHS in order to avoid unjustified classifications and hence over-labelling.

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