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February 15, 2013 - International Chemicals Secretariat adds 249 substances to Substitute it Now ("SIN") List of Chemicals of Concern
Today the International Chemicals Secretariat ("ChemSec") released an updated version of their "Substitute It Now" ("SIN") List of Chemicals of Concern.
If you are not familiar with ChemSec, you can read more about this international non-governmental organization at the link below.
http://www.chemsec.org/
Version 2.1 of the SIN List adds 249 substances, bringing the total list to 626. The SIN List is relevant to product manufacturers because many chemicals on the list are already regulated in one or more countries. The SIN List is also a useful window into chemicals that may be regulated or restricted in the future based on their underlying hazard characteristics. For example, all chemicals currently on the REACH SVHC Candidate List were on the SIN List in advance of their REACH Listing.
From today's ChemSec Press Release:
"Besides new information from REACH registrations dossiers, the SIN update also includes substances newly classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction according to the EU CLP regulation. Also, a few substances recently agreed by EU member states as Substances of Very High Concern and included on the Candidate List have been added. These have not previously been identified by the SIN List methodology, as they are in fact for example mixtures or lack a unique identification (CAS) number."
SciVera Lens can be configured to screen BOS data against the SIN List to provide advanced notice to your company about chemicals that are already, or may eventually be regulated in one or more countries.
January 24, 2013 - SciVera to present at the New York Toy Fair on "Chemical Safety Assessment ". Joe Rinkevich, SciVera Co-founder, will be leading an interactive presentation on Monday, February 11, 2013 at the Javits Center in New York City. Joe's session will explore the specific steps companies can take to meet the requirements for increased chemical knowledge in toys and juvenile products.
"Chemical Safety Assessment " refers to the process of product chemical data collection and evaluation that has become a key part of verifying a product's safety prior to being placed on the market. SciVera's web-based software product, SciVera Lens, helps product manufacturers gather and evaluate the data needed to verify the chemical safety of products and their materials.
New and pending regulations in Europe and the United States require greater knowledge of a product's chemical ingredients. The revised European Toy Safety Directive (2009/48/EC) along with new and forthcoming state-level rules in the US are transforming how toy companies must gather and evaluate information from their suppliers and contract manufacturers.
This presentation will also explore how companies are using proactive chemical safety assessment to innovate and select preferred materials for future products.
See the full description of the session on the Toy Fair 2013 Events Calendar.
If your company will be attending the New York Toy Fair 2013 and would like to meet with a SciVera representative, please make contact by email via betterproducts@scivera.com
Sept 7, 2012 - SciVera presents at the California Safer Consumer Products Summit, San Jose, CA. Dr. Patricia Beattie presented on "Managing the Chemical Data Challenge and Implementing Solutions" as part of a panel on Managing the Chemical Data Challenge at the California Safer Consumer Products Summit. Her presentation discussed the need for an automated solution for efficient and cost effective Chemical Safety Assessments for complex materials and products. Approximately 100 participants representing industry, academia, government and consulting companies were in attendance. For additional information, please contact SciVera by email at betterproducts@scivera.com.
June 1, 2012 - SciVera adds Raymond Keneipp to Executive Team as Managing Director We are very pleased to announce that long-time advisor to SciVera, Ray Keneipp, has joined the company as Managing Director. Ray leads all day-to-day operations for the business and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in growing software as a service and technology enterprises to SciVera. Please join us in welcoming Ray to the SciVera team!
May 1, 2012 - SciVera's Dr. Patricia Beattie to present at GC3 Innovators' Roundtable Dr. Beattie is leading a panel discussion on the "Auto Sector's Journey Towards Safer and Greener Chemical Design" at the 7th Annual Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3) Innovators' Roundtable.
March 18, 2012 - SciVera featured in March 2012 Architect Magazine. Architect Magazine is a key publication of the archtitecture profession as well as the builiding materials and contstruction industry. The feature article, "Material Culture," covers the trends in efforts to better identify and evaulate the chemicals that make up building and interior products.
February 28, 2012 - SciVera to meet with consumer product manufacturers and suppliers at ICPHSO Annual Conference, Orlando [February 28 - March 2, 2012]. One of the world's most important product safety events, the International Consumer Product Health & Safety Organization gathers each year to discuss the developments and innovation in product safety. This year a senior team from SciVera will be participating in several events and meetings around the ICPHSO conference. If your company will be attending the ICPHSO conference and would like to meet with a SciVera representative, please make contact by email via betterproducts@scivera.com
February 10, 2012 - SciVera to present at the New York Toy Fair on "New Requirements for Chemicals in Toys". SciVera will be leading a session on "New Requirements for Chemicals in Toys" on Monday, February 13, 2012 from 10:30 to 11:30 Javits Center, Room 1E02.
See the full description of the session on the Toy Fair Events Calendar.
If your company will be attending the New York Toy Fair and would like to meet with a SciVera representative, please make contact by email via betterproducts@scivera.com
January 17, 2012 - SciVera to meet with toy manufacturers and suppliers at Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany [1-6 February 2012]. One of the world's largest toy expositions takes place in Nuremberg, Germany every year in early February. This year a senior team from SciVera will be participating in several events and meetings around the Nuremberg Toy Fair. In addition, SciVera will be scheduling meetings with toy manufacturers and suppliers to answer questions about SciVera Lens. If your company will be attending the Nurmeberg Toy Fair and would like to meet with a SciVera representative, please make contact by email via betterproducts@scivera.com
2011
September 7, 2011 - US Toy Industry Association references SciVera as a solution for chemical safety assessment. The Toy Industry Association recently published a letter to its membership in support of industry efforts to respond to a number of product chemical regulations in the US and Europe. TIA's President, Carter Keithley, encourages TIA members to explore the range of solutions available to toy companies and their suppliers to meet the requirements of regulations like the revised European Toy Safety Directive (2009/48/EC). SciVera is proud to support TIA, its members, and the global toy industry in implementing a reliable and cost-effective solution for product chemical safety validation. The full text of the letter is available on the TIA website via the following link:.
President’s Letter – September 6, 2011: Tools to Help You Meet New EU Requirements
June 20, 2011 - SciVera launches enhanced version SciVera Lens Secure Supplier Platform (SSP). Today SciVera released the next generation of SciVera Lens SSP, the "Secure Supplier Platform" that supports SciVera's flagship SciVera Lens Chemical Safety Assessment Platform. SSP enables manufacturers to enage their suppliers---and their entire multi-tier product supply chain---in a secure, Web-based, materials and chemical data collection network that dramatically simplifies the processing of chemical safety assessments on raw materials and complex products.
SciVera Lens SSP is a turn-key platform that offers a reliable business process for manufacturers to gather material and chemical data from suppliers. With supplier input delivered via SSP, manufacturers then use SciVera Lens CSA Platform to process chemical safety assessments for their products and comply with a growing list of regulatory and market requirements.
SciVera Lens CSA Platform subscribers first invite their suppliers to register for SciVera Lens SSP. Suppliers then establish their own secure instance of SciVera Lens SSP for a small annual fee. Once registered, a supplier can upload and manage unlimited Bill of Substances (BOS) and Bill of Materials (BOM) documents to SSP for processing chemical safety assessments via SciVera Lens. Suppliers then share the resulting chemical safety assessment summary with their B2B customers while protecting confidential ingredient information of their material or product.
SciVera customers are using the powerful combination of SciVera Lens CSA Platform anbd SciVera Lens SSP to securely and reliably gather BOM and BOS data from their suppliers and process reliable chemical safety assessments of products.
May 10, 2011 - SciVera CEO, Joe Rinkevich, presents to aerospace, defense and security executives at E2S2. The Environment, Energy Security, and Sustainability (E2S2) Symposium and Exhibition provides an opportunity to share ideas on how to improve energy, environmental and sustainability management throughout DoD, the Services and other federal agencies.
March 28, 2011 - SciVera publishes a Chinese language version of its SciVera Lens Fact Sheet. In order to respond to market interest in SciVera Lens from product and materials manufacturers in mainland China, SciVera has published a Chinese language version of its 1-page Fact Sheet describing SciVera Lens features and functionality. SciVera is also developing Chinese language support for its SciVera Lens product documentation and processes.
March 6-10, 2011 - SciVera Executives, Dr. Patricia Beattie and Dr. Thomas Osimitz , Present at Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Dr. Beattie Organized and Co-Chaired Workshop Session: "Safer Products for a Sustainable World: Linking Chemical Design and Toxicology". This session discussed the need for chemists and toxicologists to work together to design safer industrial chemicals, recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of toxicity, the development of high-throughput screening (HTS) assays as well as other predictive methods allow for rapid assessment and screening of many more chemicals than has been possible using traditional whole animal models.
These advancements support our activities at SciVera to provide methods and tools for downstream users of chemicals to make more informed decisions on the chemicals in their products. Panelists/Speakers included Dr. Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator, US EPA, Director, Office of Research and Development; Dr Megan Schwarzman, UC Berkeley; Dr. Paul Schulte, NIOSH; and Dr. Richard Judson, US EPA, National Center for Computational Toxicology. Additionally, Dr. Thomis Osimitz, SciVera, presented "Design Framework for Safer Chemicals - Recent Research and Commercial Applications".
2010
November 1, 2010 - SciVera welcomes Dr. Wiebke Droege, an experienced chemical research and toxicology professional, to its team. Dr. Droege joins SciVera as Director of Research to lead our growing team of toxicology and research professionals in managing SciVera's Chemical Data Repository (CDR). SciVera's innovative CDR provides extensive and up-to-date information on a range of toxicological, physical characteristic, and identifying information for industrial chemicals. Dr. Droege holds a B.S. degree in pharmacy from the University of Münster, Germany, and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Tübingen, Germany.
October 20, 2010 - Dr. Patricia Beattie presents "Framework for the Safety Assessment of Complex Products" at the Michigan Green Chemistry Conference in Lansing, MI. Dr. Beattie's presentation described the key elements of a chemical hazard, exposure and risk assessment for manufactured goods/consumer products in conjunction with current drivers---regulatory, consumer, etc. Dr. Beattie's talk also included an overview of SciVera Lens and the value of this automated approach to product assessment for a variety of product sectors.
October 15, 2010 - SciVera relocates to new office space in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. SciVera has moved its Charlottesville headquarters to expand along with its increasing customer base and strategic partnerships. SciVera's new offices are located in the 10th & Market Building just adjacent to Charlottesville's historic Downtown Mall. SciVera's new contact infomation is available on the SciVera website.
October 10-13, 2010 - Dr. Patricia Beattie presents "Chemical Risk Assessment Process" to the Society of Automotive/Aerospace Engineers (SAE) International 2010 Brake Colloquium and Exhibition in Phoenix, AZ. At this global event, Dr. Beattie provided an overview of the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment "MAS" process for hazard, exposure and risk assessment and the phase on environmental exposure assumptions for brake and tire wear debris. Dr. Beattie and presented an overview of SciVera Lens and its capabilities for automating this process along with an update on current emerging regulatory activities that indicate the trend for chemical assessment of manufactured goods/ consumer products.
September 12, 2010 - SciVera releases SciVera Lens2 to customers. Today SciVera delivered a broad range of new functionality and features to its customers with the release of SciVera Lens2. Since the launch of SciVera Lens in August 2009, SciVera has added a variety of improvements in response to customer requests and internal development projects. "We are constantly deploying new features to our customers" says Joe Rinkevich, SciVera's Co-founder and CEO. "We built SciVera Lens on a 'Software-as-a-Service' (SaaS) delivery model, which makes it very efficient for our customers to realize improvements to their SciVera products. Upgrade efficiency is one of the many benefits of a Web-based platform like SciVera Lens."
The Lens2 milestone brings several new features to the platform for customers in several industries. Subscribers can now connect with selected suppliers to import their material and component toxicologiocal asessment results without receiving any of the supplier's confidential ingredient information. "This is a feature we've been developing since establishing SciVera in early 2009." says Rinkevich,"The power of secure material assessment sharing while protecting confidential ingredient information is a critical requirement for many supplier-customer relationships. We've been able to achieve this in the context of materials assessment. It's proving to be a big help in many supply chains."
With Lens2, customers can also screen thousands of products, materials and chemicals coming from their supplier network against any number of Restricted Substance Lists (RSLs). This feature enables a customer to select RSLs (eg, SVHC, SIN-List, an internal or industry RSL or any individual substance) for notification any time that substance is present in BOM or BOS data in their Lens2 system. It's a reliable and cost-effective solution to an increasingly vexing challenge for more and more manufacturers.
Rinkevich adds, "My colleagues and I have been in the business of helping companies make cost-effective material and chemical decisions for many years. SciVera Lens2 provides an efficient, scalable solution for experts and non-experts on chemicals issues. We built SciVera Lens to meet the requirements of businesses working to respond to growing regulatory and market drivers on the topic of chemicals in products."
SciVera Lens2 includes many additional features to help companies and their suppliers make reliable and secure decisions about their products, materials and chemicals with regard to potential human and environmental hazard and risk.
June 21-23, 2010 - Dr. Thomas Osimitz presents "Framework for the Chemical Safety Assessment and Consideration of Alternatives in Complex Supply Chains" at the 14th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington, DC.
June 14, 2010 - Dr. Patricia Beattie presents "Material Assessment Strategy for Complex Products: Achievement in Automotive, Applicability to Aerospace" at the Environment and Energy Sustainability Symposium (E2S2) in Denver, CO. E2S2 is a major venue for US and international Government Agencies, and the organizations that supply and support them, to discuss issues relating to their impact on the environment. The restricted substance session, chaired by leadership from Granta Design UK and US DOD, reflected the growing importance of the topic for this community and included contributions from a number of leading engineering enterprises.
May 13, 2010 - SciVera announces a collaboration with Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) on a webinar scheduled for June 9 2010. [Press Release]
“Regulation of Chemicals in Products: A Changing Landscape of Risk and Opportunity”
The 90-minute webinar will provide a critical overview of the regulatory and market trends related to product chemical evaluation and share what compliance officers and other business leaders can do, cost effectively, to help their companies manage the risks.
The webinar features five diverse and influential panelists including Dr. Thomas G. Osimitz, Chief Scientific Officer of SciVera, Inc. and Tom Murray, Senior Biologist and Chief of the Prevention Analysis Branch at the US EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Panelists will offer information and guidance from the key perspectives of government, industry, NGO, science, and strategic business planning.
February 1, 2010 - SciVera opens Michigan office to more closely serve the automotive industry and other businesses in the region. With its growing subscriber base in Southeast Michigan, SciVera has opened an office in the Detroit area to more directly serve the day-to-day needs of current and prospective customers. The SciVera office in Michigan is led by Dr. Patricia Beattie, Vice President, Business Development.
February 1, 2010 - SciVera welcomes Dr. Patricia J. Beattie, an experienced automotive executive, to its leadership team. Dr. Beattie joins SciVera as Vice President, Business Development after a 30-year career in the automotive industry. As a board-certified toxicologist, Dr. Beattie most recently was Director, Chemical Risk Management and Environmental Services at General Motors.
2009
August 12, 2009 - Rubber & Plastics News held a webinar today entitled, "Going Green in Rubber" in which SciVera Lens™ was featured as part of the ongoing achievements by the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment [Webinar Replay].
June 24, 2009 - The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment makes Recommendation to the Commission on Environmental Cooperation Council on a Chemical Material Assessment Strategy (M-A-S) for North American Auto Industry [HTML]a[PDF]
