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Industry ministers of the twenty-five have agreed to regulate more than 30,000 chemicals
This new substance register is called REACH (acronym in English for registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals), replaces forty legal initiatives and will be used to launch the European Agency of Chemicals based in Helsinki. The agreement was closed this past December of 2005 under the British presidency of the EU and it is estimated that during the first half of 2006 the Austrian presidency will promote the final approval of this initiative.
After the introduction of REACH, it will be industries, and not public administrations, which will have to assume more responsibility to show that the substances they manufacture are not dangerous to be marketed. According to this commitment, importing companies will be obliged to provide the necessary information about the properties of imported chemicals and chemicals in a volume exceeding one tonne per year. All products that are not registered in the European Agency of Helsinki can not be imported into the European market. This legislation directly affects some 27,000 European companies, mostly small and medium-sized companies, which account for 95% of the business fabric.
In the case of the most dangerous, carcinogenic, bioaccumulable substances in the body or the environment, among others, only specific authorizations will be granted if the industry demonstrates that the risks are adequately controlled or when the socioeconomic benefits of its use outweigh the risk and There are no viable alternative substances. This last possibility, if produced, would not be mandatory as long as it is shown that the product originally used is controlled. This aspect softens the Eurocámara proposal that wanted to impose the criterion of mandatory replacement.
On the other hand, the information requirements for substances produced between one and ten tonnes are reduced except for those whose danger is already known. With respect to the produced ones between ten and one hundred tons, the most expensive tests are suppressed and the possibility is granted of reducing the information requirements in case the product does not have to have a direct contact with the people or the environment . REACH will also require companies to share the data when they wish to register the same product and register those products present in objects that are going to be sold abroad, for example the ink of a pen.
The objective of the European Commission is that the REACH enters into force in 2007 and that it will begin to apply in 2008, provided that the difference of criteria is exceeded that, in the face of an alternative product, exist between Eurocámara and the Council that approved the regulation.
Seven nongovernmental organizations such as Greenpeace, WWF, among others have also made public, which consider that the new regulation is not enough especially for the application of the substitution principle, which, if necessary, in all cases could lead to savings Important to public health of 90,000 million euros in thirty years.
