REACH
Legislation Compliance
What is R.E.A.C.H.?
This stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemicals. These regulations have been adopted by the European Parliament and came into force on the 1st June 2007. They provide a comprehensive reform of the regulations surrounding the manufacture, marketing, import and use of chemical substances in the European Union.
The main objectives of the regulations are to ensure that chemical substances used within the EU are properly assessed for their safety to both humans and the environment and where appropriate the use of some substances may be restricted or prohibited.
What Chemicals are covered by R.E.A.C.H?
All chemicals manufactured or imported into Europe in quantities greater than 1 tonne will be effected.
What has to be done under this new REACH legislation and when?
Due to the complexity of implementing such a large piece of legislation, the requirements are phased. This is to allow industry time to prepare in the effects of the new regulations.
Firstly, all manufacturers and importers had to pre-register their chemicals under REACH and ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) in Helsinki, and this had to be completed by December 2008. According to the legislation, if a chemical wasn’t pre-registered by this time, it can no longer be sold within the EU. Reabrook now have written confirmation from our supply chain that all products that needed to be pre-registered have been.
The next and current stage is the actual registration process which involves providing a package of technical information on the chemical and its hazards. This registration is phased over a period of years based on volumes manufactured and in some cases the hazards of the chemical. The ‘phase in’ period is between 2010 and 2018 depending on these parameters.
How will REACH effect you as a customer?
As part of the registration process with the ECHA, the manufacturers or importers need to include downstream uses in their dossiers. This means that information will have to pass up and down the chemical supply chain to ensure all relevant uses are registered for the different substances. In many cases Reabrook already knows what applications our products are used for. However, it may be necessary, in certain cases, for us to request further information from customers. If this information is confidential we will of course respect this, as the legislation does provide for this.
If you free issue Reabrook with raw materials you will need to ensure that your own source is REACH compliant through the various stages of this legislation.
What are Reabrook doing to ensure we ready for REACH?
Our policy is to ensure total compliance with the new regulations. In order to achieve this we have been working closely with our trade associations and supplier base over the last few years to ensure we are fully aware of the requirements of the legislation and to ensure that we are compliant at each stage of this legislation. The actual manufacturers do most of the work for registration, but we continually liaise with our supply base to ensure our product uses are included in the registration dossiers.
This will be a long and slow process as some of this information won’t require submission to ECHA until 2018 but we have a REACH team in place who meet frequently to help ensure continuity of supply to our customers.
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact our REACH co-ordinator Gillian Tooth on 01283 227306.