REACH system on chemicals

With the entering into force of the Reach system an increasing number of chemicals will be submitted to testing to discover their dangerous properties.

The Reach system, due to its complexicity, will impact mainly the SME, which will need the support of external consulents for the preparation of the technical paperwork and for the classification an labelling issues.

Companies that manufacture, import, sell or use chemicals can ask to Chemsafe for support in order to have specific and suitable consulting services on the Reach Regulation.

REACH is with us

On December 13th 2006 the European Parliament approved the new Regulation of Chemicals known as REACH.

The companies involved would be all those that import or produce chemicals (phase-in and new substance) over 1 ton per year.

For more dangerous substances a plan of substitution should be developed by the companies in order to switch to safer alternatives.

The regulation has been voted in plenary session with 529 positive agreements, 98 negative and 24 abstains, that will permit to REACH to enter into force on 1st June 2007.

The following main points are confirmed:

• Duty of care:
  Manufactures, importers and downstream users are responsible of a safe introduction into the market of chemical substances in order to take care of human health and environment.
• Data sharing:
  The regulation promote a list of dispositions that encourage companies to share available data on substances that have to be registered, and request to inform the consumers on dangerous substances that can be found in final products.
• Promotion of alternative methods to animal testing:
  The regulation promote the use of alternative methods to animal testing. Methods that first shall be validated by the EU Commission. To avoid duplications of tests on animals, the companies involved have 45 days to declare the available data before starting a new test.
• Registration and chemical safety report:
  Companies must register every chemical substance imported or produced over or equal 1 ton per year, to the ECHA (European Chemical Agency) which will be placed in Helsinki.
  Every substance over 10 tons per year, must be also followed by a Chemical Safety Report, dispositions of which will be listed in a specific guideline.
• Authorisation:
  The more dangerous substances (CMR, PBT, vPvB, etc.) are subjected to authorisation by the EU Commission. The ECA will produce a list of substances considered dangerous and therefore submitted to authorisation.
  Authorisations are temporary, since chemical under authorization should be substituted. The possibility of authorization will be valuated case by case.
• Substitution:
  Producers and importers of authorized substances have to submit to the ECHA a report of alternatives in order to substituted the dangerous product. If the report shows the evidence that suitable alternative exists, companies must submit to ECA a substitution plan, and a detailed calendar of actions to undertake.
• Restrictions:
  Every substance considered very dangerous will be listed in a specific annex. For those strong production and importation restrictions will be adopted.

The EU Council adopted REACH on 18th December and published it on December 30, 2006 as Regulation EU no. 1907/2006.

The guidelines of regulation have been published during the following months on the official ECHA website.

Chemsafe has the knowledge and experience to be the best partner in guiding and supporting companies for every issue that REACH will bring in their realities.

Download REACH Regulation (English, PDF 1.8Mb)

Download REACH Regulation (Italian, PDF 1.8Mb)