What is a Poison Center Notification (PCN)?

PCN or PCN notification is a notification process by which a company reports information about a dangerous mixture to a single European poison center database.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s not something entirely new. Let’s look at Slovenia and how dangerous chemicals are reported here.

According to Slovenian national legislation, companies that import dangerous chemicals into Slovenia must report these chemicals to the competent authority. In Slovenia, this is the Chemicals Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

Registration is done electronically through the so called ISK – Information System for Chemicals (here’s a link to Slovene site detailing more about the topic).

When registering, a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) is also attached. This SDS is entered into a database to which the Chemicals Office of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Poisons Center have access.

SDSs assist medical personnel in providing first aid in case of poisoning by a dangerous chemical. The basic purpose of registering chemicals in the ISK system is therefore to protect people and their health and to take appropriate action in case of poisoning. This task of the Poison Center has been further improved/upgraded with the help of PCN notification.

Today, most EU member states already have their chemical information systems in place (here the October overview). Through the PCN notification process, a single European database has been formed, in which poison control centers throughout Europe have available accurate information (including composition) about dangerous chemicals on the market.

Therefore, in the event that someone is poisoned by a dangerous chemical, the UFI code and the PCN work as a tandem.

Based on the UFI code, the aforementioned centers can quickly obtain accurate information about which substances this chemical contains, and based on the information obtained, decide on the correct treatment of the poisoned person. Speed saves lives in such cases.

The UFI code by itself has no meaning if there is no PCN notification attached to it. The generated UFI code is “empty” and has no value by itself. PCN notification must therefore be carried out for the specific UFI code.

As can be seen from what has been written so far, the UFI code and the PCN notification process impose the greatest responsibility on formulators and importers of mixtures. On the other hand, also to companies that rename and repackage mixtures.

Now, I know this is a lot to take in. So, if you need help with PCN notifications, just write to me at simona.miklavcic@bens-consulting.eu. This cost you nothing but could save you a lot of nerves in the future.

Don’t waste time & resources with complicated and expensive poison centre notifications and management. Do it efficiently and cut time by doing it directly from Chemius.