As part of the New Green Deal, which originated from the EU Commission's efforts to pursue a sustainable chemicals strategy by 2050 and to end chemical pollution of the environment, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has assessed (very) persistent, (very) mobile and toxic substances and created the list "Prioritised PMT/vPvM substances in the REACH registration database". The list is intended to improve communication between authorities at local level, manufacturers, importers, downstream users and emitters and to promote the development of assessment methods for emissions. It also aims to form the basis for the identification of other substances of very high concern within the framework of the REACH regulation and for classification into the new hazard classes PMT and vPvM within the framework of the CLP regulation.
The PMT list is based on the REACH registration database. It lists substances according to their vPvM and PMT properties and categorizes them based on their unique chemical structure meaning that, when a substance is registered under several entries (e.g., additionally in mixtures), the CAS numbers are combined.
vPvM substances are those that meet certain persistence and mobility criteria. While mobility is determined by the lowest organic carbon-water coefficient log KOC over the pH range of 4 - 9, persistence is determined by degradation half-lives under different environmental conditions (sea, fresh or estuarine water, marine sediment or soil). The PMT class poses weaker requirements for persistence and mobility, but additionally takes into account the criterion of toxicity. Toxic substances must meet certain requirements for NOEC or EC10 values for marine or freshwater organisms, CMR properties (carcinogenic category 1A or 1B, germ cell mutagenic category 1A or 1B or reprotoxic category 1A, 1B or 2) or a specific target organ toxicity after repeated exposure (STOT RE category 1 or 2). The exact requirements can be found on the Federal Environment Agency’s website.
The Federal Environment Agency divides the unique structures into three priority categories. Category A includes substances that have not yet been regulated in the EU with REACH registration volumes >10 tons per year, category B includes those with 1 - 10 tons per year and category C includes those with more than 1 ton per year, which are already subject to EU regulation. This prioritization can be found in the original document (Chapter 2.3). Each of these prioritization categories is additionally divided into subcategories defined by emission and environmental exposure probability (“REACH emission likelihood”), environmental monitoring data, composition of the mixture and volatility criteria.
The Federal Environment Agency first published the list in May 2019 and updated it in September 2023. All chemicals classified as vPvM and/or PMT were included in the SUBSPORTplus database.