The new European chemical regulation: REACH
REACH is a new European chemicals regulation, which entered into
force on 1 June 2007. It will require chemical producers to provide
data to the European Chemicals Agency on the substances they
produce to demonstrate that they are being safely produced and
used.
The acronym REACH takes its letters from
Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation of CHemicals, the
three main parts of the legislation. There is a fourth part,
restriction, which does does not appear in the acronym.
Registration
Registration is the process by which chemicals producers provide
a technical dossier of data to European authorities in order to
continue placing their substances on the European market.
Evaluation
Evaluation is a process through which the authorities can
require registrants, and in very limited cases downstream users, to
provide further information. There are two types of evaluation:
dossier evaluation and substance evaluation.
Dossier evaluation: Proposals for testing are
examined to avoid unnecessary animal tests and costs and to ensure
that the registration dossier complies with the registration
requirements.
Substance evaluation: This type of evaluation
is conducted when a substance is thought to present a risk to human
health or the environment.
Authorisation
Authorisation is a longer-term process involving those
substances classified as hazardous by the European Union. The
manufacturers and/or users of such substance will have to apply to
the European authorities for authorisation to continue marketing
and using them.
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