EU Passed REACH Compliance

The European Union Parliament passed the REACH chemicals legislation on 13 December 2006 and is scheduled to take effect from June 2007. The chemical substances in question are to be tested and registered with the future European Chemicals Agency located in Helsinki, Finland.

REACH requires industry to register all existing and future substances and chemicals, collecting data for chemical, toxicological and environmental-impact properties. The EU REACH regulation replaces 40 EU directives for chemical control regulations, placing all chemicals into a unified regulatory system.

REACH aims to overhaul the way that chemical substances are managed within the European Community. Standing for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals, REACH will continue the trend of making industry responsible for its products by shifting the responsibility for testing and risk assessment from public authorities to manufacturers and importers of chemicals.

Thousands of chemical substances will be reviewed under the REACH legislation.

The purpose of this Regulation is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment as well as the free circulation of substances on the internal market while enhancing competitiveness and innovation. The ultimate aims of REACH are to compile data on the many thousands of substances for which there is currently little or no data currently available; centralise the data-storage and management of these substances in a new European Chemicals Agency; and encourage the substitution of the most harmful substances by imposing on them restrictions or authorisation conditions.

Scope  

REACH is very wide in scope and covers almost all manufactured or imported substances that are put on the market or used as intermediates.  

Every single company using chemicals anywhere in the European Union will be affected in some way. Whether you're a chemicals producer, a manufacturer or an importer, the chemicals you produce or use will have to be registered as an approved substance.

Registration  

Registration requires that companies submit specified data on the chemicals that they manufacture or import to the Chemicals Agency in Helsinki. This data will be used to ensure that each substance is managed appropriately, and that any risk to human health or the environment is controlled effectively.  

Under REACH, data sharing is encouraged to reduce testing costs and required to minimise testing on animals.

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