Eradicate odours and sanitise a wide range of garments

Cleaning, laundering and removing spots and stains is the bread and butter work for most dry cleaners and launderers. However, have you thought about adding a new revenue stream to your business? Have you thought about garment sanitising?

Renzacci can now offer our customers a new product the "Ozocab" which is exclusive to us and not available from any other supplier. Designed and made in the UK, the Ozocab has been independently tested and certified by the University of Newcastle microbiology laboratories to destroy completely harmful bacteria which cause odours.

EUROPEAN BIOCIDAL PRODUCTS REGULATIONS

Registration of Ozone as a substance (showing its’ safety and efficacy to justify it being called a biocide) is being implemented as an industry and is being managed by EuOTA.

The Biocidal Products Regulations (EU) 528/2012 (BPR) came into force on September 1^st, 2013 repealing the Biocidal Product Directive (Directive 98/8/EC) and from that date Ozone is regulated as an “Active Substance” under BPR.  Anyone who wishes to market an ozone generator for a Biocidal application within the EU must have their product authorized in accordance with the BPR, which is a two-step process.

Firstly, it was necessary for Ozone itself to be accepted as an “Active Substance”, which requires a dossier to be submitted proving the efficacy and safety of Ozone as a substance in biocidal applications. 

The deadline to submit this dossier was September 2016.  Given the complexity of this process, a group of members within the European Ozone Trade Association (EuOTA) created a consortium called the Ozone Task Force (OTF) to join forces in creating the Ozone Dossier. Our Ozone Cell manufacturer is a member of the OTF and Renzacci UK plc is a member of EuOTA.

The OTF submitted the dossier within the required deadline and evaluation is ongoing.  The timescales for such regulatory approval are often difficult to predict, but it thought that approval should be towards the end of 2021. 

Until now, a grace period has been allowed for any existing Ozone manufacturers to continue supply until the Ozone Dossier has been approved.  Following approval of the Dossier, only Ozone equipment supplied by companies with access to an approved Ozone Dossier will be able to legally used in the EU. (Note: Not only will suppliers without access to the Ozone Dossier not be able to supply new machinery, but also the machinery supplied prior to this date will also cease to be legal). 

Those manufactures, with access to the Ozone Dossier, will be permitted to continue supply, and will then enter the second stage of this process in which they must register their own equipment within a given period to verify that those machines are capable of delivering Ozone within the parameters shown to be safe and effective in the Ozone Dossier.

Details of the BPR can be found on the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) website: https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/biocidal-products-regulation/understanding-bpr

Details of the OTF and a list of members can be found on the European Ozone Trade Association (EuOTA) website: https://www.euota.org/otf-ozone-task-force/

UK BIOCIDAL PRODUCTS REGULATIONS

Clarification of the position regarding BPR in the UK following Brexit has now been issued the the UK HSE.

HSE have confirmed “The existing EU Biocidal Products Regulation (EU BPR) has been copied into GB law and amended to enable it to operate effectively in GB. This means that most aspects of EU BPR will continue in the same way under the new stand-alone regime – the GB Biocidal Products Regulation (GB BPR) came into force at 11pm on 31 December 2020”.

The information submitted by HSE indicates that for products such as Ozone, in which a Dossier has been submitted, the EU dossier will remain valid but must be evaluated separately by UK authorities.  The Ozone Dossier would require submission to the UK authorities by June 29^th, 2021.  Any OTF member will be free to participate in that process, but given the not insignificant cost involved, and the fact that only 9 of the 41 members are UK based, it is expected that a considerably smaller subset of the OTF will proceed with UK authorisation.  Our manufacturers have already indicated their intention to the OTF to be part of the UK submission.

The HSE statement does not state the provision for a grace period for Ozone suppliers who are not participating in the submission of a dossier.  It is not clear if this is simply an omission from the HSE statement but, should there be no grace period, then only equipment which has been supplied by companies who have access to the Ozone Dossier and have submitted it for approval in the UK will be legal after June 29^th of this year.  Of the 9 UK based OTF members, we are not aware of any other companies producing Ozone Cabinets (although non-UK OTF members can register for UK approval if they are willing to take on the cost). It is therefore vital you check to ensure that the manufacturer of your Ozone solution is a member fo this dossier as if not, it is likely that your Ozone system will be illegal to operate after approval is given.

Details of the HSE position on BPR in the UK can be found on the HSE website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/eu-bpr/authorised-approved-biocides.htm

020 8579 2661 | mail@renzacci.co.uk

Renzacci UK Plc, 9 Marlin Park, Central Way, Feltham, Middlesex, TW14 0AN, UK

Company Number 01042547 registered in England