EU-SICHERHEITSDATENBLATT Dieselkraftstoff ... - Schmierstoffe

1.0 Introduction
REACH requires that a PBT/vPvB assessment be performed for all substances for which
a Chemical Safety Assessment (CSA) must be conducted. This generally translates to all
substances manufactured or imported in amounts above 10 tonnes per year that are not
exempted from registration. The objective of the PBT/vPvB assessment is to determine in
a stepwise manner if a substance fulfils the criteria specified in Annex XIII of the
regulation. This document describes the rationale and data used to complete this
assessment for complex petroleum substances comprised of hydrocarbons. For complex
substances, this assessment must be applied to all constituents that are present at greater
than 0.1% (EU 2006).
Due to the complex nature and variability in composition, most petroleum substances are
UVCBs (Substances of Unknown or Variable composition, Complex reaction products or
Biological materials). These substances are composed of a mixture of many unique
hydrocarbons that each exhibit different properties relevant to environmental assessment.
Current risk assessment methods that have been developed for substances with unique
properties are not directly applicable to complex petroleum substances. To address this
gap, CONCAWE developed the hydrocarbon block (HCB) method as a framework to
perform the environmental assessment for complex petroleum substances. The HCB
method has been incorporated in the REACH endpoint specific guidance (c.f. Appendix
to section R.7.13), and will be applied to fulfill the requirements of the REACH
regulation (ECHA 2008a). The HCB method resolves complex petroleum substances into
pseudo-components (‘blocks’) that are defined by representative hydrocarbon structures
that exhibit similar physical and chemical properties. The representative structures have
been chosen to cover the degree of complexity that is typically found in petroleum
substances as summarised in the “CONCAWE library” (Appendix 1). However, some of
the representative structures were selected based on availability of the compound, rather
than whether completely representative of typical petroleum hydrocarbons. This is the
case for several of the more conservative structures (e.g. highly branched). For the
purpose of this PBT assessment, all of the available data is presented. However, select
structures were not used to assess the PBT properties of a particular hydrocarbon block
(e.g. anthracene, o-terphenyl).
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