What is Reach?
Reach is the new European law on chemicals and their safe use and stands for
Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals.
Modern society needs chemicals, but the production and wide-spread use of these substances may pose risks to human health and the environment. Today we know very little about our chemicals: for 97% we don’t have enough information about effects, uses and how they need to be handled to be safe.
Reach will provide a high level of protection of human health and the environment. At the same time, it will enhance the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry by fostering innovation and ensuring high safety standards for its products.
Reach replaces numerous EU laws related to chemicals and is complementary to other environmental and safety legislation but will not replace sector specific legislation (for example on cosmetics or detergents).
Why do we need Reach?
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The number of incidents of allergies, asthma, certain types of cancer, and reproductive disorders, including low sperm counts, are on the increase in Europe. Chemicals may be one of the causes.
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Some chemicals have endocrine-disrupting properties, which means they mimic or inhibit hormones. In some animals, such as frogs, birds, fish and mollusks, they have produced infertility and gender changes.
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In 2004, the environmental campaign group WWF tested the blood of government ministers from 13 EU Member States for chemicals that can negatively affect human health and wildlife. WWF found on average 37 out of the 103 tested substances in the ministers’ blood.
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Some chemicals can travel long distances. High levels of toxic chemicals have been found in Inuit and polar bears. Chemicals can also accumulate in mothers’ milk.
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According to the EU Agency for Safety and Health at Work, occupational skin diseases alone result in the loss of 3 million working days each year, valued at EUR 600 million.
What can Reach do for us?
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A high level of protection from the risks that chemicals may pose to human health and the environment, through the generation and dissemination of information on chemicals, in particular safety information.
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A sustainable and competitive EU chemicals industry that can innovate more easily and whose products meet high safety standards. This will increase consumer confidence, reduce liability risks and improve workers’ health. Downstream users will enjoy much of the same benefits and know more about the chemicals they use.
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Compliance with the global commitment agreed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg ‘to achieve, by 2020, that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to a minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment’.
Who is responsible for Reach?
Reach is based on the idea that industry itself is best placed to ensure that the chemicals it manufactures and puts on the market in the EU do not adversely affect human health or the environment. This requires that industry has certain knowledge of the properties of its substances and manages potential risks. Every company that manufactures or imports more than 1 ton of any chemical substance or mixtures of chemical substances per year should register the substance with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). If your company uses chemicals, you must apply as a downstream user.
What are the timelines?
The first step of following the new Reach legislation is pre-registering the substances with the European Chemicals Agency between 1 June and 1 December 2008. Failure to meet this deadline means that you cannot continue producing or importing the substance until you have submitted a full registration dossier. However, if you have pre-registered you can benefit from staggered registration deadlines depending on the substance and the tonnage.