Substances of concern have intrinsic properties which are harmful to human health and/or the environment. Find out which criteria are used to select these substances.
REACH defines substances of very high concern (SVHC) in its article 57, as first step to identify chemicals that should be subject to authorisation within EU. Similar terms, like 'substances of (high) concern' or 'priority substances', are used by different organisations to refer to chemicals that should be substituted due to their hazards.
The table below gives an overview of the most common criteria, with the corresponding definitions, for identifying substances as "priority". The classification of the substances (H-phrases or previous R-phrases) helps with the allocation. More detailed descriptions are also available, with links to the original documents.
Identifying Substances of Concern - Overview of the Criteria (PDF, 80 KB)
You can also search the Restricted and Priority Substances Database that contains lists of priority substances.