Letters: November 2024

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Readers celebrate longevity, ponder practical purposes, and more

Regulating plant extracts

The article ‘Tea tree oil faces ban in UK and EU over reprotoxicity’ highlights a wider issue regarding assessment and hazard classification of plant extracts.

The article states that industry representatives are challenging the proposal for classification as reprotoxic Category 1B, meaning a presumed human reproductive toxicant.

As background, substances are tested or otherwise assessed according to the Reach regulation 1907/2008, and the results are used for hazard classification according to classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) regulation 1272/2008. Generally, substances are classified from the data, while mixtures are classified from the hazards of ingredients and their percentages in the mixture (the calculation method).