Chemical overreaction
December 1st 2008

The REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulations have been a source of considerable confusion with many businesses unsure whether the recent 30 November pre-registration deadline for substances affected them. Tim Harris from the REACH Competent Authority tells Georgina Bisby why you probably don't need to panic, as many companies have been worrying unnecessarily

The REACH Regulations came into force 1st June 2007 with the aim of improving the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances. The REACH Regulations give greater responsibility to industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. As part of the scheme, the deadline for preregistering chemicals has just passed (30th November).

Obligations for suppliers and manufacturers A major part of the REACH Regulation process is the requirement for manufacturers or importers of substances to register them with a central European Chemicals Agency. "The main obligations under REACH are on companies that manufacture or import chemicals or articles from outside of the EU so this is who this deadline affected," explains Harris. "If a company isn't a manufacturer or importing anything from outside of the EU then they shouldn't be too concerned. It seems a lot of people were pre-registering on a whim and they shouldn't have been. You should only have pre-registered if you had a really strong idea that you needed to.

A common misconception was that it was necessary to pre-register to guarantee your supply chain. "This process is not going to achieve that," says Harris. "If a company finds in a year's time that their supplier is no longer supplying the things that they want because they failed to pre-register and they then have to find a new supplier from outside the EU, they can pre-register later. That's often known as 'late' pre-registration and its part of the way REACH is supposed to work."

A new approach for end users

For users of chemicals the REACH regulations are not intended to replace obligations under COSHH but rather they signal a new approach moving the burden of evaluating the risks associated with using chemicals up the supply chain to those who have the expertise: "The most important thing about the REACH Regulations for people further down the supply chain is for them to have a strong relationship with their suppliers," explains Harris: "Suppliers can't just be invoice numbers anymore.

While REACH has similar duties as the CHIP Regulations about passing information down the supply chain, it has new obligations in terms of passing information back up the supply chain. Now end users of chemicals have a right (though not a duty) to request that the registrant supports their use of the substance which means that registrants of substances should know how the substance is going to be used and they should do some work to identify how it should be used safely." This is a new approach, essentially under COSHH the duty would have been with the employer: "Often though, the people doing risk assessments under COSHH weren't chemists or chemicals experts," say Harris, "the idea in REACH is to move that burden up the supply chain so the people who have the expertise are providing the information about the risks."

How will REACH be regulated?

"There has been a lot of pressure for a REACH compliance tick or something similar but this is pretty much nonsense," says Harris. "REACH is not intended to really work in that way and because of the way the Regulations come into force in stages, such a scheme wouldn't really make a lot of sense – two suppliers of the same thing might have duties that start a decade apart, but both are equally legal." Instead the emphasis is on the closer relationship with suppliers and it has been suggested that end users can ask for evidence that suppliers understand REACH and are doing their bit."

The impact on Safety Data Sheets Many safety representatives have been asking about the impact on Safety Data Sheets. "In the short term changes won't be very significant, there's a slightly different format for REACH Safety Data Sheets, but the data is essentially the same," explains Harris. "What we would expect is that Safety Data Sheets are updated if the information changes – which is a requirement anyway – but that update should now be in the REACH format. In the long run safety data sheets are expected to improve dramatically as a result of REACH because ultimately safety data sheets provide information on chemicals - which is exactly what REACH aims to improve."

Where to go for help For anyone who wants to know more about REACH, there are a number of places to go to for advice: "The first port of call should be your trade association because they should have sector specific information," advises Harris.

"There are also a lot of consultants out there and there is the UK Competent Authority helpdesk – though we can only provide information about how REACH works rather than business specific guidance." he adds. The European Chemicals Agency is another source of advice -enquiries to the ECHA are made via the Information Request Form on: http://echa.europa.eu The overriding message is that REACH is not a cause for alarm: "Don't panic," concludes Harris, "in the long term REACH will be business as usual for most companies, but anyone who has a duty to register chemical substances needs to find out more, urgently."

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