Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals

Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) is a piece of legislation in the European Unionon chemical safety. It would eventually oblige companies producing more than 10 tonnes of a chemical (less in certain cases) to investigate the potential hazards to human health and to the environment. It would apply to all chemicals commercially available in the EU, in contrast to the USToxic Substances Control Act(TSCA) which only applies to chemicals newly coming into use. The European Chemicals Agencymanages the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of the REACH system.

It has already been significantly amended since the original version initiated by the European Commissionin 2003. It passed the first reading in the European Parliamenton 2005-11-17, and the Council of Ministersapproved it on 2005-12-13[1]. The estimated cost of compliance is 2.3 billion eurosover 11 years. However, there have been different studies on the estimated cost which vary considerably in the outcome.

The issue is more an issue of healththan of the environmentsince it is aimed at the use and handling of substances which may be toxic to humans. However, certain chemicals which are persistent pollutantsare included within REACH.

For example, the issue of using toxic substances in electronic devices has two implications: Firstly, toxic substances can leave the device during consumeruse through the air and secondly, toxical substances can end up in the environment where they might not do harm to humans directly, but for example through the contamination of water with chemicals, these chemicals can enter the food chain through fish, e.g. accumulate (bioaccumulation) in the human body, reaching dangerous concentrations.

See also

• Environmental health
• Quality of life
• Chemistry
• Consumer protection
• Poison
• Lead poisoning
• Mineral wool
• Carcinogen
• Porter hypothesis
• Directive 67/548/EEC
• EUR-Lex

Reference

• Schapiro, Mark, "New Power for 'Old Europe'". The Nation, December 27, 2004, 11-16.

External links

• European Commission Directorate-General Environment REACH site
• European Commission Directorate-General Enterprise REACH site
• European Chemicals Bureau REACH site
• European Parliament: current status of the legislative procedure
• Europe?s Global REACH: Costly for the World; Suicidal for Europe(Hayek Institute, 2005) by Angela Logomasini(opposing REACH)
• Link site about REACHda:REACH

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registration%2C+Evaluation+and+Authorisation+of+Chemicals Wikipedia article Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals.