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 presents an overview of the criteria and their definitions that are most used by different sources to identify substances of concern. For definitions using Risk phrases corresponding Hazard statements were added (not always a direct translation is possible). More detailed descriptions are also available, with links to the original documents.

You can also search the list of lists database that contains lists of priority substances.


(Click to see the full table)