How to check if the product has been PCN notified?

Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to check if a supplier’s product has been properly PCN notified?

This is a very common question we receive. The problem with the Poison Center Notification – PCN is that the national poison centers in the European Union are not connected to each other and each country is treated separately. If you are buying hazardous mixtures from abroad, it is necessary to check with the supplier of products whether a PCN submission has also been made for your country.

In practice, it often turns out that suppliers from abroad add a UFI code to products, complete a PCN submission only for their country, but do not include your country as well. Unfortunately, such a UFI code and PCN submission have no validity in your country, and the conditions for placing this product on the market are not met.

If you want to check if the supplier has also included your country in the PCN submission, I have to disappoint you. In each EU member state, only an authorized poison center can access this database. The PCN submission database is not publicly accessable, as each company can only access thier own PCN submissions. The buyer of the product has absolutely no way to check if the appropriate PCN submission has been made or not. Since trusting the word of mouth often proves as unreliable in the business world, an alternative option exists. You can request the supplier for a screenshot from this ECHA Submission Portal system, for the completed PCN submission of the product.

A screenshot of a successful PCN submission of the BENSANOL product is shown below.

All the key information is visible from this screenshot, including trade names, countries and UFI codes. The product supplier is not legally obliged to provide this screenshot from the ECHA Submission Portal system, but unfortunately this is currently the only way to verify compliance.

I’m glad if you obtained any useful information from this article. If you perhaps need any other help or information regarding PCN submissions, you can contact me at tim.bencik@bens-consulting.eu.

Author of the original photo Freepik portal Freepik