Source: SPECIALIST PRINTING WORLDWIDE : ISSUE 2: 2009
Elaine Campling explains the conditions for registration of chemical substances under the EU’s REACH regulations
For those readers unaware of REACH, it is the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation (EC) 1907/2006, which came into force on 1 June 2007. The REACH regulation is reported to have been introduced because many chemical substances in use were not considered to have been properly evaluated prior to 1981, when it then became necessary to provide safety information for newly developed chemicals prior to placing them on the market.
REACH has been enacted against a backdrop of concerns expressed about the use of certain chemicals, which is partly due to the reported accumulation of these chemicals in the environment and health concerns associated with their production and use. REACH makes industry, rather than regulators, responsible for collating health, safety and environmental information on substances, repealing over 40 pieces of related chemical legislation.
